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A key focus at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and its sites like the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) is translating research findings into medical and pharmaceutical applications. Beyond scientific collaboration, the goal is to facilitate the transfer of technology and knowledge into practical and potentially commercial uses. Recently, the company MyxoTech has been founded as a HIPS spin-off. MyxoTech CEO Peter Sullivan explains what the new company is about and what it wants to achieve.

Yesterday, the lighthouse project of the state of Lower Saxony reached its latest milestone: At the second portfolio conference of the Institute for Biomedical Translation (IBT) Lower Saxony, a high-caliber jury selected projects from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and the Hannover Medical School that will receive funding of over 1.6 million euros. A total of 25 million euros are available to the IBT Lower Saxony until 2028 to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge research in the life sciences in Lower Saxony and to bring it out into the world in the form of startups and entrepreneurial ideas.

Certain changes in the genetic material of pathogens can alter their ability to infect human cells or protect them better from defense by the immune system. Researchers were able to observe this effect particularly impressive in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. During the coronavirus pandemic, an interdisciplinary team at TWINCORE, Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hanover, investigated the interaction between pairs of mutations that might have triggered several of these changes in infectivity and immune escape. They have now published their findings in the journal Genome Biology. The TWINCORE is a joint institution of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School (MHH).

The current outbreak of the Mpox virus originated in Central Africa. A first case has now been discovered in Europe. The WHO has declared the highest alert level. In an interview with Helmholtz, Fabian Leendertz, Director of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), puts the events in context.

The protective effect of established COVID-19 vaccines is initially very robust, but wanes relatively quickly. This limitation imposes a need for periodic booster shots, which drives vaccine hesitation. In contrast, an innovative vector vaccine developed at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) presents a compelling alternative. It elicits prolonged immune response in animal models, and maintains its efficacy over extended time. The concept employs an animal cytomegalovirus (MCMV; murine cytomegalovirus) as the vector that expresses and delivers the coronavirus spike protein information. Crucially, this vector poses no threat to humans, enhancing the vaccine's safety profile.

Modern cutting-edge research generates enormous amounts of data, presenting scientists with the challenge of visualizing and analyzing it. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg and the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS) have developed a tool for visualizing large data sets. The sCIRCLE tool allows users to explore single-cell analysis data in an interactive and user-friendly way. Their results have been published in the journal NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics.