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Prof Rolf Müller, Managing Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), has been awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2021 by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for his outstanding research achievements. The Leibniz Prize is the most highly endowed award regularly presented to scientists in Germany. The HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, in collaboration with Saarland University.

Der Haushaltsausschuss des Bundes hat dem Helmholtz-Institut für Pharmazeutische Forschung Saarland (HIPS) Förderung in Höhe von 47 Millionen Euro für den weiteren Ausbau des Instituts zugesichert. Zusammen mit Mitteln aus dem Landeshaushalt des Saarlandes erhält das HIPS bis 2025 somit eine Gesamtsumme von 70 Millionen Euro. Geplant sind ein Erweiterungsbau und weitere Forschungsgruppen mit Fokus auf antibakteriellen und antiviralen Wirkstoffen.

Hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia is the most frequent nosocomial infection. It is mostly caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which in many cases is already resistant to commonly used antibiotics and is therefore difficult to treat. A team from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with the Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC), a spin-off of Max Planck Innovation and the Max Planck Society e.V., aims to further develop a drug that prevents staphylococci from colonizing the lungs. The research team will now receive milestone-dependent funding of initially 1.33 million US dollars from the non-profit organization CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator), with CARB-X anticipating a further 7.44 million US dollars depending on the progress of the project.

The annual list of “Highly-cited researchers” identifies scientists who have demonstrated a significant impact in their chosen field over the last ten years through the publication of several highly-cited papers. This year, the Braunschweig Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) has two researchers on the list: bioinformatician Prof Alice McHardy and biochemist Prof Jörg Vogel. The ranking by Clarivate Analytics, a company specialising in bibliometric data, includes more than 6,100 researchers.

Infections with two pathogens pose a serious threat in the clinics. Researchers from Würzburg and Jena have developed a technique that provides new insights into this process and can be used as an early warning system. The research results have now been published in the journal Cell Reports.