Bio

 

KRÜGER Rejko (Professor Dr. med.) is Director of Transversal Translational Medicine (TTM) at the Luxembourg Institute of Health and Professor for Neuroscience at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine of the University of Luxembourg. His clinical and experimental research on Parkinson’s disease was supported by an Excellence Grant (PEARL) from the ‘Fonds National de Recherche’ (FNR). He joined the University of Luxembourg in June 2014 after serving nine years as Associate Professor for Neurology at the University of Tübingen and as Head of the Laboratory for Functional Neurogenomics at the Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen, Germany. His professional experience as neurologist and neuroscientist extends over 25 years in academic settings. Prof. Krüger is specifically interested in studying genetic causes of neurodegenerative diseases and their translation into novel treatment strategies, which has resulted in over 300 scientific publications thus far (>35.000 citations, h-index 67). He coordinates the National Center for Excellence in Research on Parkinson’s disease (NCER-PD), funded by the FNR. Furthermore, he works as a senior consultant for patients with Movement Disorders at the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL). He is currently a reviewer for various high impact factor international journals and funding agencies. Prof. Krüger is regularly invited to international conferences in the area of Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders and, in 2019, faculty member at the World Parkinson’s Conference (Kyoto, Japan) and Congress of the Movement Disorders Society (Nice, France). Since 2017, the Ministry of Health is supporting Prof. Krüger to lead integrated healthcare concepts for neurodegenerative diseases in Luxembourg: the “Programme Démence Prévention” (an initiative to prevent dementia) and ParkinsonNet Luxembourg (a care network of health care professionals for Parkinson’s disease). The work of Prof. Krüger in translational medicine was acknowledged by the research award for outstanding scientific achievement by the Luxembourg Research Fund (FNR) in 2022.

 

 

Abstract

Genetic stratification for precision medicine approaches in Parkinson’s disease.
Rejko Krüger

To date, no causative treatments are available for common neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease (PD). Previously failed trials did not account for the clinical and pathophysiological heterogeneity of PD. Genetics of PD provided first insight into the complexity of this most common neurodegenerative movement disorder and delineated relevant subgroups of patients, who share an underlying molecular pathology. Novel patient-based models using induced pluripotent stem cells from monogenic forms of PD allowed to dissect mechanisms of neurodegeneration and define first entry points to screen for disease-modifying compounds for more targeted therapies and translate into novel treatment options.
During the last years, there has been a rapid evolution in novel technologies, e.g. next generation sequencing technologies or device-based treatments of PD symptoms. This enables novel strategies for patient stratification and identification of markers for different therapeutic outcomes, that can be translated into precision medicine approaches and clinical decision support, i.e. genetic predictors of therapeutic outcome in PD. Overall these genetic stratification concepts allow for a more direct return of ongoing translational research into novel symptomatic and causative treatments for PD.

Keywords: genetic stratification, induced pluripotent stem cells, deep phenotyping, stratified treatment, clinical decision support.