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Since 2017, interested citizen scientists can collect soil samples as part of the "Sample’ das Saarland" campaign and send them to the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). The HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in collaboration with Saarland University. Scientists at HIPS search for new types of myxobacteria in the samples, and grow and examine them in the laboratory. These globally distributed, predatory soil bacteria are capable of producing an enormous variety of chemical substances, so-called microbial natural products, which often represent excellent starting points for the development of drugs. At HIPS, the main focus is on molecules that are able to kill other bacteria. The idea behind this is that if myxobacteria can use these substances in the soil to hunt down other bacteria, scientists may be able to develop new drugs from the same substances to fight bacterial infections in humans. The focus is particularly on resistant pathogens for which the antibiotics available up to now can no longer be used with the usual success.

Between July 2020 and August 2021, the Epidemiology Department of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig examined the blood of approximately 26,000 individuals for antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as part of the nationwide “MuSPAD” study. For samples collected between July and October 2020, it became evident that one to three per cent of the people had experienced a SARS-CoV-2 infection after the first wave. By the end of the third wave, the seroprevalence had increased but remained at less than 15 per cent at most study sites. Therefore, while there were two to five actual infections for every reported infection during the first wave, this ratio - and thus the number of undetected cases - decreased in the second and third waves. These results were recently published in the international issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt. In addition, a preprint publication of another study investigating the immune response after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 based on samples from the MuSPAD study is under review.

A conversation about the direction of research at the HZI with Prof Thomas Pietschmann, who is the head of the "Experimental Virology" department at the HZI and director of the Experimental Virology Institute at the TWINCORE - Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research

The cold season has arrived along with the question of whether a vaccination against influenza makes sense in times of the ongoing pandemic. And when is the right time for the third vaccination, i.e. the booster vaccination against Covid-19?

On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, the MTZ®foundation presented the SonderMTZ®-Award 2021 in Erkrath-Trills. The award winner is Dr Sahamoddin Khailaie from the department "Systems Immunology" headed by Prof Michael Meyer-Hermann at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. The prize was awarded in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of Medical Systems Biology and Systems Medicine. The award ceremony took place during the 13th PhD Symposium of the HZI on 2 December 2021.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs do not promote infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This is the conclusion of a team of researchers from TWINCORE - Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation, led by Prof Gisa Gerold, together with colleagues from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and Umea University in Sweden. The scientists have studied several lipid-lowering agents from the group of statins in a cell culture model. They have now published their results in the journal iScience. The TWINCORE-Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research is a joint institution of the Hannover MEdical School (MHH) and the HZI.