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Carlos A. Guzmán's research team applies knowledge about the human immune system and its challengers to develop innovative vaccination strategies.

Among all the hospital germs, Gram-negative bacteria are particularly difficult to treat: Many antibiotics fail due to the double-cell membrane. But cystobactamides are providing hope for a remedy – substances from the extensive collection of bacteria held by the HZI. These bacteria are going to be further developed into drugs in a partnership with the pharmaceutical company Evotec.

Herpesviruses use sneaky tricks to permanently establish themselves in our cells and to spread efficiently in the population.

The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) is partnering with Calibr, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), in particular its location Helmholtz-Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), and the University of Queensland’s (UQ) Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD) in its efforts to develop and ensure new antibiotics are globally available to all patients who need them. The agreement allows GARDP to access and test Calibr’s ReFRAME compound library and HIPS natural products library. Both libraries will be screened by CO-ADD to discover novel compounds or combinations of drugs that will kill the priority pathogens identified by the WHO in critical need for research and development of new antibiotics.

Am Helmholtz-Institut für Pharmazeutische Forschung Saarland (HIPS) findet am 27. und 28. Juni zum neunten Mal das HIPS-Symposium statt. In diesem Rahmen wird gleichzeitig das 10-jährige Jubiläum des Saarbrücker Standortes des Helmholtz-Zentrums für Infektionsforschung (HZI) in Braunschweig gefeiert. Der Ministerpräsident des Saarlandes, Tobias Hans, die Ministerialdirektorin des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung, Prof. Veronika von Messling, sowie Prof. Otmar D. Wiestler, Präsident der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Prof. Dirk Heinz, wissenschaftlicher Geschäftsführer des Helmholtz-Zentrums für Infektionsforschung, und Prof. Manfred Schmitt, Präsident der Universität des Saarlandes, werden neben Prof. Rolf Müller, dem geschäftsführenden Direktor des HIPS, die Jubiläumsgäste begrüßen. Neben international renommierten Forschern aus dem Bereich der Wirkstoffforschung präsentieren auch Nachwuchswissenschaftler ihre Ergebnisse.

Medically relevant compounds can often be found in nature. To make them suitable for drugs, they need to be isolated from their natural sources. If sufficient quantities of the agent cannot be isolated in that manner, chemical synthesis comes into play. Without chemical synthesis, many agents were not available for the industrial production of drugs. Phil S. Baran of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA, aims to develop the “perfect synthesis”. His methods and reagents are applied in fundamental chemical research and in the production of pharmaceuticals. They are commercially marketed with much success. In honour of his outstanding achievements, he is being awarded the Inhoffen Medal by the “Friends of the HZI”, the sponsors' association of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI).