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Between July 2020 and August 2021, the Epidemiology Department of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig examined the blood of approximately 26,000 individuals for antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as part of the nationwide “MuSPAD” study. For samples collected between July and October 2020, it became evident that one to three per cent of the people had experienced a SARS-CoV-2 infection after the first wave. By the end of the third wave, the seroprevalence had increased but remained at less than 15 per cent at most study sites. Therefore, while there were two to five actual infections for every reported infection during the first wave, this ratio - and thus the number of undetected cases - decreased in the second and third waves. These results were recently published in the international issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt. In addition, a preprint publication of another study investigating the immune response after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 based on samples from the MuSPAD study is under review.

On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, the MTZ®foundation presented the SonderMTZ®-Award 2021 in Erkrath-Trills. The award winner is Dr Sahamoddin Khailaie from the department "Systems Immunology" headed by Prof Michael Meyer-Hermann at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. The prize was awarded in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of Medical Systems Biology and Systems Medicine. The award ceremony took place during the 13th PhD Symposium of the HZI on 2 December 2021.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs do not promote infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This is the conclusion of a team of researchers from TWINCORE - Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation, led by Prof Gisa Gerold, together with colleagues from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and Umea University in Sweden. The scientists have studied several lipid-lowering agents from the group of statins in a cell culture model. They have now published their results in the journal iScience. The TWINCORE-Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research is a joint institution of the Hannover MEdical School (MHH) and the HZI.

Salmonella enterica, a foodborne pathogen, is one of four key global causes of diarrheal diseases, which affect over 550 million people each year. This rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacterium has tubular, whip-like appendages known as flagella that protrude from its surface. Researchers from the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) in collaboration with researchers at Research Center Borstel FZB, as well as Max Plank Institute for Infection Biology, the University of Marburg and the Technische Universität Braunschweig studied biochemical and biophysical properties of these bacterial structures. Their study was recently published in PLoS Pathogens. The CSSB is a common initiative by ten northern German research institutions, including the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver that can lead to cancer and organ failure. Antiviral therapies can suppress the infection, but a functional cure is rare. Novel immunotherapies may lead to an actual cure more often. However, it is still unclear which patients benefit most from these new therapies. Researchers at the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), a joint institution of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH), as well as the MHH and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), have now identified a biomarker that intends to enable predictions about the success of the therapy. The results were published in the scientific journal Gut.