The German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have developed a concept to form a National Alliance for Pandemic Therapeutics (NA-PATH). They thereby wish to target research and development of widely effective therapeutics in order to be better prepared for future outbreaks due to viral pathogens having pandemic potential. Overcoming the current COVID-19 pandemic will be considerably more difficult due to the deficiency of antiviral active substances.
It often takes many years before a new active compound from basic research hits the market as a drug. In order to accelerate this process, the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and Saarland University will work together even more closely in the future. To this end, they have now founded the Translational Centre for Bioactive Compounds, in which scientists from both institutions will interact closely with the University Hospital in Homburg and the pharmaceutical industry.
EMBL and the six Helmholtz Centers of the Research Field Health (Helmholtz Health) are expanding their collaboration. The two research organisations are cooperating to expand the frontiers of health research and advance scientific progress for human health.
On 9 September 2021, the 13th TWINCORE Symposium took place. This year, too, the event was held online due to corona. Nevertheless, the webinar was a great success and attracted even more viewers than last year.
New antibiotics are urgently needed in the fight against multi-resistant bacteria. The recently discovered darobactin is a potential candidate with resistance-breaking properties. This substance shows very good antimicrobial activity against some of the most problematic hospital germs. However, so far darobactin could only be produced in relatively small quantities, making detailed investigation and further development difficult. A team led by Dr Sebastian Groß from the Department of Microbial Natural Products at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Saarbrücken has now addressed this problem. The scientists published their results in the journal Chemical Science.
