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The Alliance of German Science Organisations strongly supports the Federal Government’s consistent action against Russia's belligerent attack on Ukraine, which is in violation of international law.

For many diseases, the tools of medicine are reaching their limits. CRISPR technologies open new avenues for diagnostics and therapies, although the natural source of CRISPR remains largely untapped. Scientists from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, a joint venture of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Julius Maximilian University (JMU) Würzburg, now demonstrate a new way to study CRISPR systems that can accelerate their conversion into tools. Their approach was published today in the journal Molecular Cell.

Liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. So far, the treatment options for two types of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), have been inadequate, while the number of new cases has been rising. A study by researchers at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) now offers hope. A vaccine based on a highly attenuated infectious agent called Listeria monocytogenes proved to be safe and effective protection in premalignant and malignant liver diseases in preclinical mouse models.

An international research team from TWINCORE - Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, a joint facility of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Hannover Medical School, describes the dual effect of the endogenous substance itaconic acid, which is both antiviral and anti-inflammatory. Their study, which has now appeared in the journal PLoS Pathogens, opens up perspectives for possible therapeutic applications of itaconic acid against severe courses of disease in viral infections. 

Pharma-backed incubator INCATE selected the HZI start-up project Myxobiotics as one of the first start-ups to get support. Myxobiotics develops a new class of antibiotics against Acinetobacter baumannii, which causes severe, difficult-to-treat respiratory infections. Myxobiotics’ approach is based on a new class of natural compounds (cystobactamids) discovered and developed as antibacterial agents by Prof Rolf Müller and Prof Mark Brönstrup and their teams at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), together with Dr Thomas Hesterkamp and Evotec. The HIPS is a site of the HZI in collaboration with Saarland University.