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Scientists at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) in Würzburg want to better understand how the oral cavity germ Fusobacterium nucleatum is exactly linked to various cancer diseases. To unravel the molecular strategies of these bacteria, the team has developed new genetic tools. They discovered an adaptation factor that may help the microorganisms colonize tumor cells. The findings contribute to the search for new therapeutic targets and were published recently in the journal PNAS (The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND) is pleased to announce the participants of the second phase of the SPRIND Challenge "A Quantum Shift for New Antiviral Agents". Six teams will each receive up to 1.5 million for the next twelve months to further develop new drug candidates against viral diseases. The team “PROTAC-powered antivirals” led by Prof Mark Brönstrup, head of the department “Chemical Biology” at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, receives funding for the development of a platform for broadly effective antiviral agents. In addition, the team “Mucboost” with participation of Dr Christian Sieben, head of the junior research group “Nano Infection Biology” at the HZI, will continue to receive funding. The “CRISPR Antivirals” team includes two HZI researchers, Prof Chase Beisel, head of the department “RNA Synthetic Biology” at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), and Prof Claus-Michael Lehr, head of the department “Drug Delivery across Biological Barriers” at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). HIRI and HIPS are HZI sites in cooperation with Julius Maximilians University (JMU) Würzburg and Saarland University, respectively.

Martin Korte researches the influence of infections and infection-associated inflammations on neurodegenerative diseases that damage, for example, learning processes or memory. Korte is group leader of the “Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration” research group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and director of the Zoological Institute at the Technische Universität Braunschweig where he also holds a professorship for Cellular Neurobiology. A newly emerging field of research are the symptoms summarily known as "long COVID", which continue to manifest for months in about ten per cent of patients after overcoming a COVID-19 disease. In this interview, Martin Korte explains these long-term consequences, which are the subject of his new book (in German).

Many people suffer from neurodermatitis (atopic dermatitis) or psoriasis. These chronic inflammatory diseases, which have so far been incurable, can lead to a significant loss of quality of life due to the agonising itching and stigmatisation in severe forms. Researchers of the exzellence cluster RESIST have now gained a number of new insights with potential clinical relevance using state-of-the-art technologies such as T-cell receptor and single-cell RNA sequencing based on skin biopsies and blood samples from patients. They have published these in the journal Allergy, currently the leading publication in the field of allergology, in two articles. The main authors include Dr Bowen Zhang from the research group of Prof Yang Li, Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM) and TWINCORE - Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, and Dr Lennart Rösner and Dr Stephan Traidl from the team of Prof Thomas Werfel, Clinic for Dermatology, Allergology and Venereology at Hanover Medical School (MHH). The CiiM and TWINCORE are joint institutions of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and MHH.

Dr Peggy Riese is a scientist in the Department of Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany. Her research focuses on the special features of the immune system in its interaction with vaccines. In this interview, she talks about current developments in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine research.

In their search for new substances that are effective against infectious diseases, researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) are extracting natural substances from soil bacteria. They are getting help from the public in the course of a citizen science project, which this year recruited citizen scientists from all over Germany on board the exhibition ship “MS Wissenschaft”.