A new lecture series focussing on translational bioinformatics and systems biomedicine has been recently launched in Luxembourg. The series is organised by LIH in partnership with the University of Luxembourg (UL). The scientific organisation committee includes researchers from the Departments of Oncology and Infection and Immunity at LIH, and the Life Sciences Research Unit and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine at the UL.

This is the fourth lecture series initiated by LIH. Twelve lectures by outstanding researchers followed by a “meet the speaker” session will take place at the House of Biomedicine II on the Belval Campus in Esch-sur-Alzette in 2017 and 2018. The programme is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) through the RESCOM funding scheme for scientific events.

The lecture series provides a unique opportunity for learning about the latest advances in computational methods and their application to biomedical research, with an emphasis on challenges of potential clinical relevance. Transdisciplinary and translational research programmes that rely on the application of mathematical and computational methods have become crucial to advance biomedical research. This is in particular necessary to make sense of the large amounts of available biological and medical data in a broad range of patient-oriented applications. It is therefore anticipated that this lecture series will be of wide interest to the biomedical research community.

Dr Francisco Azuaje, Head of the Bioinformatics and Modelling Research Group at Proteome and Genome Research Unit of LIH’s Department of Oncology, is the coordinator of the lecture series. ‘We are confident that this lecture series will contribute to the training of students and young researchers, enhance research culture through open discussion and exchange of ideas, and encourage the development of new collaborations between local and external research groups’, he points out. ‘The lecture series will bring research stakeholders from the public and private sectors in Luxembourg and the region closer together, and will increase the international visibility of the Luxembourg research community working on bioinformatics and systems biology.’

The first lecture was held on 19^th June and chaired by Dr Feng He from LIH. The audience had the pleasure of listen to a talk entitled “Hunt for the tipping points of diseases by dynamic network biomarkers” by Prof Luonan Chen, who is the Director of the Key Laboratory of Systems Biology at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.