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The Helmholtz Institute for One Health is a new HZI location in Greifswald, linking research into human and animal health with environmental factors.

It often takes many years before a new active compound from basic research hits the market as a drug. In order to accelerate this process, the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and Saarland University will work together even more closely in the future. To this end, they have now founded the Translational Centre for Bioactive Compounds, in which scientists from both institutions will interact closely with the University Hospital in Homburg and the pharmaceutical industry.

In the coronavirus pandemic, older people are particularly at risk from severe courses of COVID-19. However, other infectious diseases also affect them more than younger people. On the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons on 1 October, Prof Luka Cicin-Sain, Head of the Department "Viral Immunology", talks about the ageing of the immune system.

EMBL and the six Helmholtz Centers of the Research Field Health (Helmholtz Health) are expanding their collaboration. The two research organisations are cooperating to expand the frontiers of health research and advance scientific progress for human health.

On 9 September 2021, the 13th TWINCORE Symposium took place. This year, too, the event was held online due to corona. Nevertheless, the webinar was a great success and attracted even more viewers than last year.

New antibiotics are urgently needed in the fight against multi-resistant bacteria. The recently discovered darobactin is a potential candidate with resistance-breaking properties. This substance shows very good antimicrobial activity against some of the most problematic hospital germs. However, so far darobactin could only be produced in relatively small quantities, making detailed investigation and further development difficult. A team led by Dr Sebastian Groß from the Department of Microbial Natural Products at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Saarbrücken has now addressed this problem. The scientists published their results in the journal Chemical Science.