Dr Ulf Nehrbass is the Chief Executive Officer of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH).
After his biochemistry studies in Tübingen, Germany, and Cambridge, United Kingdom, Dr Nehrbass completed his PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1992. Dr Nehrbass was then offered the opportunity to work in the laboratory of the future Nobel Laureate, Prof Günter Blobel, at the Rockefeller University in New York, United States.
In 1998, he joined the Institut Pasteur in Paris as Research Director to set up his own laboratory. Six years later, he became the Founder, CEO and Scientific Director of the brand new Institut Pasteur in Korea, specialised in infectious diseases and cancer research and aiming at translating research excellence towards therapies that impact on patients. The institute namely worked on a compound against tuberculosis named Q203, the only new compound worldwide against totally drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria.
Based on the success of the Institut Pasteur Korea, Dr Nehrbass was invited back to Europe to build a Franco-German institute with the same ethos. In 2013, he became the Founder, CEO and Scientific Director of Ksilink in Strasbourg, a French-German Translational Research Centre created by seven academic and public funding partners. Aiming for innovative therapeutic approaches, Ksilink is specialised in patient-based disease models and personalised medicine. Ksilink aims at linking scientific and clinical excellence with biotech and pharma industry. The centre is well on its way to success.