What is the National Centre for Excellence in Research in Parkinson’s Disease (NCER-PD)?

NCER-PD stands for National centre for Excellence in Research on Parkinson’s Disease. It represents a joint effort between 5 partners in Luxembourg that unite their expertise in Parkinson’s disease. This collaboration between all the research institutions focusing on Parkinson’s disease in Luxembourg has been funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) since Spring 2015.

The partner institutes are as follows:

In addition, the following international partner institutions are involved in the research program:

• Paracelsus Elena Hospital in Kassel: DeNoPa study led by Prof. Britt Mollenhauer
• Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) at the University of Tübingen: TREND and PMPP cohorts led by Prof. Daniela Berg
• Oxford Parkinson’s disease Center (OPDC) led by Prof. Michele Hu and Prof. Richard Wade-Martins

In order to answer the urgent questions surrounding the occurance of Parkinson’s disease, researchers need to analyse clinical data and samples from hundreds of patients and healthy control persons. The active participation in the Luxembourgish Parkinson’s study is therefore an important prerequisite for the success of the NCER-PD research project.

Why participate in clinical research on Parkinson’s disease?

We currently do not know enough about Parkinson’s disease. We are still far from understanding the relationship between the different symptoms and it is still a mystery why some people are affected and others not. In addition, the disease progression, whether it is slow or fast, cannot be predicted at the moment.

As the causes of Parkinson’s disease are still unknown, new research projects are necessary that give us new ways for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

The NCER-PD research team, in a joint effort with several national and international partners, has set the ambitious aim of majorly contributing to Parkinson’s disease research in Luxembourg.

In order to decipher the causes of the disease and how the disease develops, it is important that Parkinson’s disease patients as well as healthy volunteers take part in research projects and clinical trials. The essence of a research project is to compare the clinical results and specific laboratory analyses (e.g. metabolic substances or genetic information) of patients and healthy volunteers. Differences in the two categories can reveal important information that can lead to the discovery of disease patterns (biomarkers). This discovery can then lead to the development of new tests and therapeutic approaches that can ameliorate the current treatment options. The valuable contribution from patients and healthy volunteers is therefore very important in advancing our understanding of the disease.

Data and biomaterial access

The NCER-PD Consortium is willing to share its available data and biomaterial with internal and external partners from universities, public research institutes as well as private partners for relevant research questions. 

Access to data and biomaterial can only be granted upon a favorable decision by the NCER-PD Data and Sample Access Committee. The data request should be legitimate, address sound research questions and help in advancing the research field.

To request access to NCER-PD data and or biomaterial, fill in the request form and send it by email to request.ncer-pd [at] @uni.lu . If you have questions about data and biomaterial access, don't hesitate to contact us on this email.