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The constant rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has a major impact on global public health, urgently requiring novel strategies to prevent and treat bacterial infections. The development of effective vaccines represents an attractive cost-effective alternative to novel antibiotics and would be a game changer for patients. For many bacterial infections, especially those occurring on mucosal sites, no effective vaccines exist. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a pathogen residing in the stomach, is the cause of the most common chronic bacterial infection, affecting half of the world´s population, with a high risk to progress into gastric cancer. Therefore, among other gastrointestinal pathogens, H. pylori was declared as priority neglected AMR target pathogen by the WHO, requiring rapid intervention to counter AMR. Standard-of-care for H. pylori is still an antibiotic therapy combined with a proton pump inhibitor, and thus effective treatment of H. pylori infection is severely hampered by rising AMR.

The Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation's ForTra gGmbH for Research Transfer—the largest medicine-funding foundation in Germany—supports the legally compliant production of new drug candidates for direct use in first-in-human clinical trials. Five projects—including two antimicrobial drug discovery projects of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)—are now being funded with a total of three million euros. One of the funded drug candidates was discovered and co-developed at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig.

In his doctoral thesis at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), Chunlei Jiao has paved the way for the development of the CRISPR-based RNA detection and recording platforms known as LEOPARD and TIGER. LEOPARD is a CRISPR-based method that is highly multiplexable, with the potential to detect a variety of disease-related biomarkers in just one test. On the other hand, TIGER enables the recording of transient cellular events at the single-cell level. The Helmholtz Association honors this outstanding achievement with the Doctoral Prize in the research field Health. The HIRI is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg.

With numerous supporters, cooperation partners and companions, the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) Würzburg celebrated its groundbreaking ceremony today, July 6. The institute, a site of the Braunschweig Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) founded in 2017 in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) in the city on the River Main, will have its own building on the Würzburg medical campus. The project is being realized with funds from the Free State of Bavaria, represented by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, and co-financed by the European Union.In his festive speech, Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder emphasized the relevance of research funding for the Free State's strategy for the future.

From 1 July 2023, Professor Josef Penninger takes over the Scientific Management of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI). Penninger is internationally renowned for his outstanding contributions to genetic and molecular biology. Joining HZI from the University of British Columbia (Canada), where he had led the Life Sciences Institute, he starts his position as head of the interdisciplinary infection research center in Braunschweig. Penninger is taking over the role of Professor Dirk Heinz, who had led the research center since 2011.

At first glance, nature conservation and antibiotics have little in common. However, a new collaboration project between the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and the Naturlandstiftung Saar (NLS) shows that there is a great deal of overlap. In particularly species-rich habitats, scientists are looking for soil bacteria that produce new starting materials for antibiotic development. What is special about this project is that the search for the bacteria takes place within the framework of a citizen science campaign, in which interested citizens are directly involved in the scientific process and at the same time receive valuable information about local biodiversity. HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with Saarland University.