Prof. Rudi Balling: New Supervisory Council leader in the Luxembourg health system!

Prof. Rudi Balling: New Supervisory Council leader in the Luxembourg health system!

Prof. Rudi Balling, a respected scientist in the field of system biomedicine and neurodegenization, was appointed to the supervisory board of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (Lih). He played his new role on January 1, 2025. Balling is a senior professor at the medical faculty of the University of Bonn and researches at the Institute for Molecular Psychiatry of the University Hospital Bonn (UKB). The appeal to the LIH supervisory board aims to intensify the scientific cooperation between the institutions in Bonn and the research institutions in Luxembourg.

The role of the Luxembourg Institute of Health as a leading institution in biomedical research underlines the importance of cooperation, which is also intended to contribute to the further development of research projects on complex diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Balling has an impressive career that has led him from studying nutritional science at the University of Bonn to globally recognized research sites.

academic career

Rudi Balling began studying nutritional sciences in 1974 and did her doctorate in 1984 at RWTH Aachen University. After this time he researched Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, where he dealt with important mechanisms of morphogenesis. Later he was group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and at the Max Planck Institute for Immunbiology in Freiburg im Breisgau.

his career continued in 1993 as director of the Institute for Mammal Genetics at the GSF research center in Munich. Between 2001 and 2009 he headed the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig. In 2009 he became founding director of the Luxembourg Center for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), where he worked until his retirement on December 31, 2021 and made significant contributions to research on neurodegenerative diseases.

research and commitment

After retirement, Balling continues to be committed to interdisciplinary projects and international cooperation, especially in researching neurodegenerative diseases. At the University of Bonn, he continues his work on system biology and research into diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

His many years of research has made him a leading expert in his field. He is also a corresponding member of the Braunschweigian Scientific Society and member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, which further consolidates its influence in the field of biomedical research.

The appeal to the LIH supervisory board is expected that Balling will bring valuable specialist knowledge and its extensive experience to enrich the research landscape in Luxembourg and beyond. The Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn warmly welcomes him and wishes him every success in his new responsibility.

The challenges in research on neurodegenerative diseases increase while more and more people are affected. New studies, such as those of Joachim Brumberg and Marco G Hermann, show promising approaches to better understanding the disease mechanisms, for example in the examination of the glucose metabolism in Lewy body diseases and the effects of deep brain stimulation on Parkinson's patients. These developments illustrate the relevance of interdisciplinary cooperation that Prof. Balling now wants to advance.