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The Minister President of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, visited the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) today, 4 February 2022. The visit focused on the current challenges and innovative approaches, especially in combating the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and the future development of infection research in Lower Saxony. He also delivered a message of thanks to the scientists at the research centre in Braunschweig.

Viruses are mostly encountered as pathogens. However, virus-based vaccination platforms can also help to provide protection from different diseases. In a mouse model, researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig together with national and international partners including the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ), the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the University of Rijeka, Croatia, have developed a novel cytomegalovirus-based vaccine against different respiratory viruses. A single dose of the vaccine that consists of a cytomegalovirus that incorporates genes from coronavirus or influenza A efficiently protected mice from the respiratory infections. The results on the vaccine candidate, which is not yet market-ready, were published in the journal Cellular & Molecular Immunity.

Principal Investigator Mathias Munschauer aims to better understand SARS-CoV-2. He now receives funding of 1.5 million euros for his research project “COVIDecode” from the European Research Council (ERC). Munschauer is the third scientist at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg to be awarded an ERC grant.

Silke Tannapfel, former Administrative Director, will leave the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig on 31 December 2021 to take on new professional challenges as Ministerial Director in the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts. Elisabeth Gerndt, authorised signatory and head of the Finance and Controlling Department at the HZI, is taking over the position of acting Administrative Director.

The increasing spread of resistant germs means that formerly highly effective antibiotics are often not successful anymore in treating infectious diseases. To counteract this development, the team led by Prof. Anna Hirsch from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) has developed new drug candidates that are able to render one of the most important hospital germs harmless. The researchers have published their results in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg and the University of Cambridge have revealed the molecular details of a genetic switch through their work on the 2A protein of cardioviruses. Using a new RNA-binding fold, the 2A protein activates a process called ribosomal frameshifting, which allows the virus to replicate more efficiently. This event represents an essential switch in the life cycle of the virus as well as presenting a viral Achilles' heel that could be targeted by future RNA-based therapies. The new findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications. The HIRI is a joint venture of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (JMU)