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Birch pollen is not only a nuisance for allergy sufferers. They can also affect the cells of the innate immune system and make them more susceptible to viral infections. This was now shown by a team of researchers at TWINCORE in Hanover, together with cooperation partners from the University of Augsburg. They published their results in the scientific journal Allergy. The TWINCORE - Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research is a joint institution of the the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Hannover Medical School (MHH).

The development of effective agents against viral pathogens is of increasing importance for global health. In particular, there is an urgent need for innovative therapeutic options for viral diseases for which no effective vaccine or only inadequate treatment options are available. The Volkswagen Foundation is now funding three projects to research antiviral substances under the leadership of scientists at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and Saarland University. The total funding for the three projects amounts to approximately 1.9 million euros.

Although there are many female virologists, microbiologists, and infectious diseases researchers in leadership positions at German universities and research institutes, they are usually not in the public eye. The inaccurate perception of few women being science experts was particularly evident during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, where it was primarily male virologists positioning themselves as advisors to policymakers in the media. HZI virologist Melanie Brinkmann is a founding member of the newly established association Infect-Net.

The endogenous molecule itaconic acid has antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects, as researchers from TWINCORE have recently shown. In cooperation with scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), they have now investigated the closely related substance citraconic acid. The result: Citraconic acid protects cells through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It also inhibits the release of flu viruses from human cells. They published these results in the journal Nature Metabolism.

The LOKI pilot project was launched on 1 July 2022 under the leadership of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and in collaboration with the Academy for Public Health Services (AÖGW), the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). The goal: To provide health authorities with a local early warning system for epidemiologically relevant infection outbreaks in the future - customised and practical.

Hepatitis D is by far the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis frequently leading to liver failure, hepatocellular carcinoma and death. However, there is very limited knowledge on disease pathophysiology and host-virus interactions explaining the large interindividual variability in the course of hepatitis D. Hannover Medical School (MHH) with its Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology and its Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), a joint institution of MHH and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, coordinates an international project for an unbiased screening of a large multicenter cohort of well-defined HDV-infected patients to better understand individual factors determining the outcome of infection and to identify subjects benefitting from currently available treatments. In a highly competitive call for proposals, the D-SOLVE consortium (“Understanding the individual host response against Hepatitis D Virus to develop a personalized approach for the management of hepatitis D”) has received four-year funding of 6.75 million euros from the Horizon 2020 EU Horizon Call „Personalised medicine and infectious diseases: understanding the individual host response to viruses (e.g. SARS-CoV-2)“ of the European Union. In addition to the MHH as project partner and coordinator, institutions from Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Romania are involved in the project.