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If you want to protect yourself from the flu, you have to be vaccinated anew every year because the viruses are constantly changing the components to which our immune system responds. Our immune system primarily reacts to the two viral proteins haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), although it has been shown that today’s vaccines only trigger a weak immune response against neuraminidase in the vaccinated individuals. This is unfortunate, as evidence suggests that sufficient antibodies against NA can be at least as effective against influenza infections as those against haemagglutinin. The researchers now want to make better use of this effect.

With their project Vaccine for Prevention and Treatment of Trypanosoma cruzi Infection (CRUZIVAX), a consortium of eleven partners coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research has been awarded funding through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 work programme. The aim of this project is to develop a highly effective, low-cost and easy to administer prophylactic vaccine candidate for Chagas disease, which is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). The vaccine is to be applied as a nasal spray. The project is coordinated by the Vaccinology department of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig under the direction of Prof Carlos A. Guzmán. The total funding amounts to more than eight million euros over a period of five years, about two million euros being provided to the HZI.

In the 1950s, researchers discovered bottromycins – natural substances produced by bacteria with antibiotic activity. Since these substances even kill human pathogens such as the hospital germ MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus areus), they are of interest for drug development. After the discovery of bottromycins, it took until 2012 before researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and its Saarbrücken location, the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), were able to identify the genes that bacteria need to form bottromycins. Now they were able to further unravel the underlying reactions in the bacterial cells.

As part of the “Big Data in den Lebenswissenschaften der Zukunft” (“Big data in the life sciences of the future”) call, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation are supporting 16 innovative projects that are focused on the opportunities offered by data-intensive research and personalised medicine. The life sciences are currently among the most dynamic research fields in science – as shown by the fact that 54 applications were submitted. Funding will be provided for research projects that make particular use of the opportunities and possibilities resulting from the ongoing digitalisation of life sciences for the advancement of knowledge. These projects develop milestones for the transfer of newly acquired knowledge and implement its initial steps. A total of five projects involving the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have received funding.

On her visit to Saarland on 11 June, 2019, the Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek informed herself about the current profile and areas of research at the Saarland University, and in particular about the further development of the scientific focus of NanoBioMed with special involvement of the HIPS. She spoke with the director of the institute, Prof Rolf Müller, and the president of the university, Prof Manfred Schmitt, and the Prime Minister of Saarland, Tobias Hans, about specific options for the future development of the HIPS and Saarland University in the field of pharmaceutical drug research. The current challenges facing infection research were a particular focus. The HIPS is a branch of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, operated in close collaboration with Saarland University.

The focus will be on the well-being of patients and protection of their privacy. The new Helmholtz Medical Security, Privacy and AI Research Center (HMSP) brings together researchers from the fields of IT security, data protection, artificial intelligence and medicine. Together they will develop solutions for individualised medicine, among other projects.