THE MARIAN ALDRED AWARD

Funding future scientists with scholarships for metastatic breast cancer research

Marian Aldred was one of the original committee members of Think Pink Lux, founded in 2009. Sadly, on December 31, 2011, Marian died after having lived for 8 years with ovarian cancer. In her memory, the ThinkPinkLux team committed to funding future scientists developing their research through scholarships called The Marian Aldred Award.

Marian Aldred, December 5, 1956 – December 31, 2011

The Marian Aldred award was instigated in 2012 following the untimely death due to ovarian cancer, of one of the committee’s founding members, Marian Aldred.

The Marian Aldred Award currently supports young researchers working with Dr Clément Thomas at the Luxembourg Institute of Health.

In 2023, Diogo Pereira Fernandes, a Master's student, and Dr. Clément Thomas, the group leader, were awarded the Marian Aldred Award for their research on the signaling pathways responsible for tumor immune resistance. The symbolic check of €25,000 was presented to the two laureates at a ceremony held at the LIH in Strassen on January 13, 2023.

Previously funded projects:

Identification des Cibles Moléculaires des Composés de la famille des Glycocides Cardiaques.

Amount donated: 63,000 € over 3 years (2012-2014)

Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire du Cancer (LBMCC), PhD student Florian Mullerunder Dr. Marc Diederich. 
http://docnum.univ-lorraine.fr/public/DDOC_T_2014_0231_MULLER.pdf

Meet Rosamaria Militello

A 24-year-old Italian student, born in Sicily. Rosamaria has always been interested in Nature and Science and studied Life Sciences at the University of Siena. She was fascinated by the perfect organization of cells and how a single mutation in a gene can disrupt cell’s harmony and lead to dramatic consequences for the organism.

She completed a Master degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and has now moved to Luxembourg and joined Clément Thomas’s team at LIH (Luxembourg Institute of Health) to put her knowledge into practice and be trained in breast cancer research.

Rosamaria, a researcher of the future is being supported by the Marian Aldred award.

Meet Max Krecke

Hi Everyone!

My name is Max and I am currently a Masters student doing a thesis in the field of cancer research. I am working on a project to unravel a newly discovered mechanism in breast and other cancers. This mechanisms enables cancer cells to evade the immune system whilst spreading throughout the body, facilitating the disease progression. The goal is now to discover the crucial details behind this mechanism, to find a way to counter it and to help find a proper therapy to help patients around the world.

My role in this complex project is to help the Cytoskeleton and Cancer Progression (CCP) team of the Luxembourg institute of Health (LIH) to find factors which can explain this mechanism and which can be used as target for future therapies. I am really happy to be part of such a dedicated team. Everyone is a specialist in this field which makes it very enjoyable to dive deep in this research. The positive atmosphere throughout the Institute helps me gain a lot of experience without any worries. So I really enjoy working at LIH and researching this field.

Finally, I would like to thank Think Pink Luxembourg for the support they provide and that they made it possible for me to follow my passion and hopefully others will also have this chance.