25 examples of research with impact: From metabolic insights toward personalised treatment

“FNR support has shaped every step of my scientific journey in Luxembourg. The ATTRACT fellowship enabled me to establish a dedicated immunometabolism research program. Through CORE projects, we explored how cellular antioxidants like glutathione control immune balance—from T-cell–driven autoimmunity and inflammation to macrophage and B-cell redox biology, and finally to Th17 cell metabolism and its dual protective or pathogenic roles. Most recently, I coordinate NEXTIMMUNE2, an FNR PRIDE doctoral training unit with 19 PhD students, where experimental immunology and bioinformatics are closely integrated. This initiative sparked the rollout of bioinformatics training across our entire department—an essential step for modern biomedical research.”

“In addition, with RESCOM funding, I developed the Lecture Series in Infection & Immunity into a high-profile program that now rivals the line-up of Keystone Symposia, attracting world-class scientists and strong international attention to our department and the Luxembourg Institute of Health. Together, these FNR-supported initiatives connect deep mechanistic research with advanced training and translation, preparing the Luxembourg Institute of Health for a deep dive into precision, data-driven personalized medicine.”

“With FNR support, I have mentored 10 PhD students, 8 postdocs, and 30 interns or Bsc/Msc thesis students. Through NEXTIMMUNE and NEXTIMMUNE2, we also built two national cohorts with 19 PhD positions each, shared across LIH, the University of Luxembourg, and LNS—turning our expertise into a countrywide pipeline. Alumni have moved to leading centres such as Stanford University (USA), VIB (Belgium) and University of Basel (Switzerland), and earned distinctions like an EMBO Fellowship and the University of Luxembourg Excellence Thesis Award. Mentoring has shaped me as well. It enforces clarity and integrity; we independently replicate key experiments and debate data openly. It also costs a lot of my time, but I clearly enjoy to discuss with my students.”

“FNR support turned collaboration into our default. ATTRACT anchored my lab in Luxembourg, while PRIDE/NEXTIMMUNE and NEXTIMMUNE2 connected LIH, the University of Luxembourg and LNS into one training and research pipeline. RESCOM powered the Lecture Series in Infection & Immunity, which brings leading scientists to LIH and seeds new partnerships.  Internationally, this visibility led to high-level roles: I chaired the Scientific Advisory Board of VIB’s Center for Inflammation Research in 2023 (Ghent, Belgium), and I serve on advisory boards for  the CRC/SFB1454 “Metaflammation and Cellular Programming,” (Bonn, Germany), for LMU’s Center for Inflammation & Metabolism (Munich, Germany) and the European precision-health initiative HEAL Italia (Palermo, Italy); I was also appointed to the Board of Directors of the European Cell Death Organization  (ECDO).  I am a founding member of the European Immunometabolism Network a European research initiative and will host its 2026 annual meeting in Luxembourg—placing the country at the center of this field.  I coordinate the Signal Transduction & Immunometabolism study group of the German Society of Immunology (DGfI) and sit on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Signal Transduction Society (both Germany), further linking Luxembourg to top European labs. In education, I advise international programmes, including the Manchot Graduate School “Molecules of Infection” (Düsseldorf, Germany) and the Integrated Immunology master’s programme at FAU Erlangen, Germany. Beyond academia, our results attracted MPC Therapeutics, with whom we now collaborate on translation and explore a possible Luxembourg-based spin-off. During COVID-19, FNR-enabled capacity fed into the national task force, tightening ties with public-health partners.”