Scientists Welcome Appointment of New ILL Director


The announcement of Paul Langan as director from October 2021 at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) based in Grenoble, France, has been welcomed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the UK science community. The world-class facility is managed by France, Germany and the UK in partnership with 11 different countries. Subscriptions through STFC enable UK scientists to access ILL’s neutron scattering facilities for fundamental research in fields such as condensed matter physics, chemistry, biology, nuclear physics and materials science.


Paul said, “The ILL is one of the most prestigious science research institutes in the world. As a user facility, it provides visiting researchers with access to forefront neutron scattering capabilities for developing a deeper understanding of materials and their properties.


“The ILL has a stellar record of scientific achievements and I am excited to have the opportunity to work with ILL staff and users to help to continue to lead the way forward to further scientific discoveries. By doing so, I believe that we can help lay the foundation for future new technologies and applications that will drive economic growth and improve societal well-being for everyone.”


STFC Executive Chair Mark Thomson said: “The appointment of Paul Langan is welcome news, he brings great expertise and years of experience to the role. I look forward to seeing further exciting discoveries and pioneering research coming out of ILL in the years to come under Paul’s leadership.”


Thanks were expressed by the UK science community to the outgoing ILL director Helmut Schober for his hard work and dedication.


Director Helmut Schober added: “The appointment of Paul is excellent news and demonstrates the unbroken attractiveness of the ILL. Paul has an impressive track record of achievements. In particular, during the last years he successfully steered the final transformation of SNS from a project into a scientifically highly productive neutron facility. The experience he has acquired during his career will be a great asset for the many challenging tasks that are lying ahead of us and assure ILL’s continued leadership in the field of neutron science.”


Born in Edinburgh, Paul studied physics at the city’s university and then at the University of Keele. He spent a brief period as a scientist at the ILL before moving to Los Alamos National Laboratory and then Oak Ridge National Laboratory.


Paul Langan (credit: ORNL)


At Los Alamos, he helped build the first time-of-flight neutron protein crystallography station and led several research teams in various areas of science including computational methods, neutron scattering methods and technologies, structural biology and bioenergy.


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Predicting Nanoparticle Toxicity using Animal-free Method


A novel animal-free method to predict the toxic effect of nanoparticles to the human lung has been developed by researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München together with scientists across Europe. The method aims to enable the safety-by-design development of safer industrial materials. A team led by Dr Tobias Stöger (pictured) at Helmholtz Zentrum München is focusing on an improved mechanistic understanding of the interactions between nanoparticles and lung cells, especially in view of the resulting inflammation which can lead to severe diseases with prolonged exposure. In cooperation with partners from the SmartNanoTox EU project, the research group discovered that for certain materials the long-lasting inflammatory response to a single exposure to a nanoparticle can originate from two cellular key events which were so far unknown: First, the quarantining process which is the deposition of excreted immobile composites of the nanoparticles wrapped with biological molecules on the cell surface. Second, the so-called nanomaterial cycling which entails the movement of the


nanoparticles between different alveolar lung cell types.


“With these new insights, we developed a deeper comprehensive approach on how an inflammatory response in the lung originates from particle-cell interactions.


Being able to pinpoint the origin to these two key events and quantitatively describe them was a breakthrough as it helped us built our prediction method”, said Stöger.


Using only a small set of data from in vitro measurements and by combining it with in silico modeling, the researchers gathered insights on the toxicity of nanoparticles and managed to predict the spectrum of lung inflammation (from acute to chronic) associated with a range of 15 selected materials. Stöger adds: “Being able to make such a prediction means that we can move a step closer to a safe-by-design material development. This will have profound implications on the safety, speed and cost-effectiveness of new materials.”


This study introduces an alternative animal-free testing strategy capable for high-throughput testing and connectable with in silico modelling.


Original publication: Kokot et al., 2020: Prediction of Chronic Inflammation for Inhaled Particles, the Impact of Material Cycling and Quarantining in the Lung Epithelium. Advanced Materials, OI:10.1002/adma.202003913


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Award Celebrates Molecular Pharmacology Studies at LIH


The international 2019 Galien Prize in Pharmacology has been awarded to Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) scientists Dr Andy Chevigné and Dr Martyna Szpakowska from the LIH Department of Infection and Immunity (DII) for their outstanding contribution to molecular pharmacology.


Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian Minister of Public Health and Social Affairs, along with representatives of pharmaceutical companies and healthcare hubs attended the virtual prize ceremony. The two LIH researchers were commended for their continuous achievements over the last eight years in advancing the understanding of the relevance, role, function and pharmacology of atypical chemokine receptors (ACKRs) and their ligands research activities and also for establishing and co-supervising the first molecular pharmacology academic laboratory in Luxembourg, which is located at the LIH Department of Infection and Immunity. The main objectives of their research group are to investigate the roles of chemokines and their receptors in immune disorders, cancer, viral infections and neuro-inflammatory diseases, ultimately leading to the development of drugs targeting these molecular components.


Dr Martyna Szpakowska and Dr Andy Chevigné


Presenting his team’s work at the ceremony, Dr Chevigné, Principal Investigator and Group Leader of the Immuno-


Pharmacology and Interactomics group said: “We are humbled and grateful to the jury for this unique opportunity. The Galien Prize is the highest accolade (for our team) for pharmaceutical research and development and competition was indeed very strong. I am therefore extremely proud of the work we have been able to accomplish so far. This achievement will give additional visibility and credibility to the research performed at LIH and in Luxembourg in general.”


“Receiving the prize has been even more gratifying considering that it has been awarded to Luxembourgish researchers for the first time in 38 years! This is a further confirmation of the excellent international reputation of our institute and of the Grand Duchy as a whole”, added Dr Martyna Szpakowska.


Organised yearly by Roularta HealthCare, and the Journal du Médecin/Artsenkrant, the Galien Prize in Pharmacology consists of a gold medal and a sum of EUR 5,000. It is granted to a scientist or group of scientists under the age of 40 performing clinical or fundamental pharmacology research within a Belgian or Luxembourgish academic institute.


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