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Infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to severe disease in some people, whereas others do not get ill or only experience mild disease. What causes these differences is not fully understood. It is already known that an overactive innate immune system is causing severe COVID-19 disease, but it is unclear how this is regulated. A team led by Prof Yang Li, Director at the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM) and head of department “Computational Biology for Individualised Medicine” at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), has come a step closer to answering this question. The researchers addressed the question to what extent the course of disease is genetically or epigenetically regulated. The CiiM is a joint initiative by the HZI and Hannover Medical School (MHH). In addition to Li, the team included other scientists from the HZI and the RESIST cluster of excellence.

In the ImageTox project, the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security are pooling their expertise in the fields of drug discovery and artificial intelligence (AI). Using state-of-the-art machine learning methods, the two Saarbrücken institutes aim to make research into the modes of action of new drugs more efficient. The project is an initiative within the Helmholtz Medical Security, Privacy, and AI Research Center (HMSP), which brings together leading experts from the fields of IT security, data privacy and AI, and medicine to solve pressing medical challenges. ImageTox is funded with 200,000 euros from Helmholtz Imaging, an initiative to promote imaging research.

Systematically attenuating DNA targeting activity can achieve CRISPR-driven editing in bacteria, greatly boosting colony counts and even increasing the frequency of precise genome editing. This was shown in a study of the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) in collaboration with the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. The findings were published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Before new drugs can be tested in animal experiments and later in clinical trials, they must undergo a large number of laboratory tests. This involves the use of so-called cell lines, i.e. human or animal cells of a specific tissue that can be cultivated in the laboratory. A team led by Prof Claus-Michael Lehr of the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) has now developed a novel human lung cell line that should enable much more accurate predictions of the behavior of active substances or dosage forms in humans than previous systems. The cell line could be used, among other things, in the development of drugs against SARS-CoV-2. The scientists published their results in the journal Advanced Science.

The European Research Council (ERC) grants are among the most prestigious awards in the scientific community. Prof Anna Hirsch from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) has now succeeded in acquiring a coveted ERC grant for the second time. Under the "Proof of Concept" funding program, she will receive €150,000 to bring her basic research findings closer to a potential application. Thematically, Hirsch's project focuses on medicinal chemistry approaches to develop novel antibiotics against resistant bacteria.