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Strengthening our microbiome with a pill so that it can effectively fight diseases? HZI researchers are striving to make this vision of the future a reality.

Every year, the company Clarivate Analytics publishes a list of "Highly Cited Researchers" and honors scientists who have made a particularly significant impact on their fields. In 2024, researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) are once again among them: This time, bioinformatician Prof. Andreas Keller, Scientific Director of the HZI and geneticist Prof. Josef Penninger and biotechnologist Prof. Marc Stadler were honored for their scientific publications.

Antibacterial drugs are important to treat infections. But increasing bacterial resistance to current drugs — making them ineffective or only partially effective — means that new ones are urgently needed. Building on previous work, researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), together with an international team of collaborators, have demonstrated a potential antibacterial treatment from a biosynthetic derivative of darobactin, a bacterial natural product. The team reports proof-of-concept animal trials on infections caused by bacteria, including Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii that are known to develop drug-resistance. This ACS Infectious Diseases study was published during the World Health Organization’s World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week from 18 to 24 November 2024. The HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with Saarland University.

The annual World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (WAAW) is a global campaign to draw attention to the dangers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It also aims to inform people about behaviors that can reduce the occurrence and spread of drug-resistant infections. The WAAW is celebrated every year from November 18 to 24. The motto in 2024 is “Educate. Advocate. Act now.”.

Professors Ivo Boneca (Institut Pasteur, Paris), Mark Brönstrup (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig), and Christophe Zimmer (University of Würzburg) have jointly been awarded one of the most prestigious European research prizes, an ERC Synergy Grant worth eleven million euros. The trio is pursuing an AI-based approach to make the systematic search for new antibiotics more efficient.

The Helmholtz Association has appointed internationally respected US-based scientist Martin Keller as its new president. Following a unanimous vote by the Assembly of Members last Wednesday, the Helmholtz Senate approved the decision today. Keller has lived in the United States for nearly three decades, during which he has held various scientific leadership roles at prominent institutions. Since 2015, he has directed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. His term begins on November 1, 2025.