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On 29 November 2024, a matchmaking workshop between scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) in Hamburg was held at the HZI campus in Braunschweig, bringing together about 50 researchers from Braunschweig, Hannover, Würzburg and Hamburg. CSSB was established in Hamburg as a joint initiative of ten northern German research partners, including the HZI, and is an interdisciplinary center where biologists, chemists, physicians, physicists and engineers explore the interaction of pathogens with their hosts. The event featured flash talks by early-career researchers and PIs, as well as poster pitches and in-depth presentations of the core facilities at HZI in Braunschweig and CSSB in Hamburg.

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.

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.

The Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) is growing: In the past three years, the institute – a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in collaboration with Saarland University (UdS) – has appointed five professors together with the UdS. To further strengthen the focus on active ingredients at the Saarbrücken campus, the university has filled two additional professorships in this field. To ensure that the researchers have adequate laboratory and office space, several construction projects are planned that will provide space for 330 researchers by 2029. The structural expansion is financed by federal and state development funds totaling 55.7 million euros.