Last Friday, 8 July 2016, the Luxembourg Parkinson Study NCER-PD celebrated ist first birthday with a Summer Party, on the Belval Campus.
Around 120 Parkinson patients and control subjects, together with their families, responded to the invitation from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, that allowed them to gain some insight into the behind the scenes of research.
Prof. Rejko Krüger, clinical leader of the NCER-PD research programme, emphasised in his speech the valuable support received within the country and the Greater Region, that he encountered so far: „ I would like to warmly thank our partners – be it researchers, nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists or patien organisations – for their incredible support in the past year. Thanks fo their help, we have reached almost 400 participants in the study, both patients and healthy controls“. He especially thanked the participants for their confidence in teh study and their time „Without you, this project would be impossible! We are very pleased about you being loyal to us, and we would like to invite you again!
Both patients and healthy controls, who undergo examinations on a regular basis, had the chance to take part in presentation and lab tours given by researchers. This way, they could better understand what happens to the results of the investigations and their samples:
- How neurons are extracted in the lab from their donated skin samples and used for research
- Which role do our intestines and the bacteria living in them play in out health and wellbeing.
- How you can use the mPOWER, the new smartphone application for Parkinson patients, at home to measure your symptoms and track them over time
- How do our bioinformaticians extract information from the data and samples collected in the study and give new insights into diagnosis and personalised medicine.
Information stands and workshops on physiotherapy (host: Mariella Graziano), speech therapy (host: Sylvia Herbrink), the Luxembourg Biobank IBBL and an exhibition on the history of Parkinson's research rounded off this informative day.
The musical entertainment and summer mood was set by the choir from the patient association Parkinson Luxembourg,, as well as the UniJam band composed of researchers, doctors and patients initiated by researchers at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine and Life Science Research Unit. To conclude the event in a hopeful mood, all the guests, together with the band sang the song "Always Look on the bright side of life".