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Therapeutically modified white blood cells hold great potential in the treatment of multiple myeloma, a malignant cancer of the bone marrow. However, they can lead to serious resistance in treated patients. In close cooperation, medical doctors and scientists from the University Hospital and the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research in Würzburg have now investigated the causes of this previously unexplained phenomenon. In the process, they uncovered a crucial resistance mechanism. The results were just published in the journal Nature Medicine.

An international research team of the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), led by the Department of Biotechnology of the TU Braunschweig, has reported on the development of special antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the journal Nature Communications. These antibodies prevent the viruses from entering host cells and were isolated from an antibody gene library that had already been produced from immune cells of healthy donors before the pandemic. The study shows how, in the future, active substances to previously unknown, emerging viruses can be produced very quickly without patient material.

The CoVerage tool analyses the lineage dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 strains, i.e. determines how successfully which virus strain spreads. The web resource uses input from the Gisaid genome database. Gisaid is an international initiative that aims to make research data rapidly available to the public. Scientists from all over the world contribute genome sequences of viruses such as H1N1, influenza or SARS-CoV-2 to the database, thus providing a broad overview of mutations and their genetic differences. However, to predict the spread potential of these mutations, a simple count of incidences is not sufficient.

The NoCovid group’s scientists, including HZI researchers Prof Melanie Brinkmann and Prof Michael Meyer-Hermann, have called for extensive testing, faster contact tracing, and a rapid rollout of vaccinations in Germany, arguing that only then will it be possible to open up the economy again. Any reopening in the immediate future threatens to quickly undo the hard-won successes of recent weeks, the group writes in a new paper. This means testing must become a part of everyday life. “If we want the economy to recover, any reopening has to be backed by an effective testing strategy and must not be permitted to lead to a resurgence of infections,” says Clemens Fuest, ifo President and a member of the group.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the HZI quickly moved into the public spotlight. Scientific Director Prof Dirk Heinz talks about one year of pandemic, the fast establishment of corona research and new challenges

“What exactly happens with infections in individual cells? How, where and when does the metabolism within infected cells change? If we manage to gain a better understanding of this, we’ll be able to find starting points for tailored and effective therapies,” says Antoine-Emmanuel Saliba. He has been head of the Single-cell Analysis group at the Würzburg-based Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), a branch of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) headquartered in Braunschweig, Germany, for more than three years.