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The huge community of microorganisms in our gut keeps us healthy. And when things go wrong, we get sick. And not just a little: Disorders of our microbiome could be the trigger for morbid obesity, diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases and even depression or cancer. Dr Lisa Osbelt-Block knows this. She conducts research at the HZI in the ‘Microbial Immune Regulation’ research group headed by Prof Till Strowig and is fascinated by our little fellow inhabitants. In this episode of the HZI podcast InFact she talks about how our microbiome keeps our body healthy and what happens when it is not in order. She also talks about current research into the microbiome and how the findings can be used to treat diseases.

The lungs have a very complex structure, which makes it difficult to simulate them in the laboratory using human cell line models. As a result, researchers still rely on animal testing in preclinical studies to develop inhaled drugs. A research team led by Dr Nicole Schneider-Daum of the Department of Drug Delivery across Biological Barriers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) has succeeded in establishing a human lung cell line that is suitable for the development of in vitro models. Schneider-Daum's team was awarded the Saarland research prize "Alternatives to animal testing" for this achievement.

Bacteria possess unique traits with great potential for benefiting society. However, current genetic engineering methods to harness these advantages are limited to a small fraction of bacterial species. A team led by the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg has now introduced a novel approach that can make many more bacteria amenable to genetic engineering. Their method, called IMPRINT, uses cell-free systems to enhance DNA transformation across various bacterial strains. The findings were published today in the journal Molecular Cell.

Researching new vaccines quickly and powerfully for the benefit of mankind — the COVID-19 pandemic rendered clear the need for effective and rapid vaccine development processes. Scientists from the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig investigated an innovative method that has the potential to increase significantly the effectiveness of future vaccine development. This approach uses heavy ion beams to inactivate viruses and thus represents a promising alternative to conventional inactivation methods, which often impair the effectiveness of vaccines. The results were recently published in the scientific journal “Pharmaceutics”.

The Friends of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and Technische Universität Braunschweig have awarded the 2024 Inhoffen Medal to Prof. Stephan A. Sieber from Technische Universität München for his research into new drugs against multi-resistant bacteria. The award ceremony took place on 13 June 2024 at the House of Science in Braunschweig.

The microbiome, the microorganisms that populate our intestines and aid in digestion, weighs around one and a half kilograms. It primarily consists of bacteria and provides protective effects against pathogens entering our digestive system through food, for example. An international team led by Dr Lisa Osbelt-Block and Prof. Till Strowig, both from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, investigated the mechanisms by which the microbiome counters a salmonella infection.