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The Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM), Saarland University (UdS) and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) are launching the Leibniz Science Campus “Living Therapeutic Materials” on 1 July 2020. In a competitive process, the Leibniz Association approved a grant of 900,000 € for joint research into new materials for the personalised administration of biotherapeutics, based at the Saarland campus. In addition to the funding from the Leibniz Association, the INM, the HIPS and the UdS are also contributing around three million euros to the project from their own funds. Furthermore, the State Chancellery is also contributing an additional 400,000 €.

Prof Anna K. H. Hirsch recently received a prestigious European grant with a total funding volume of 3.2 million euros to initiate an Innovative Training Network (ITN) in the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. Hirsch leads the department Drug Design and Optimization at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Saarbrücken, a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) on the campus of the Saarland University.

Scientific data indicate that many COVID-19 cases are not recorded due to mild or asymptomatic infections. For this reason, there is at the time no sufficient data on how many people in Germany have already been infected and thus have established a presumed immunity against SARS-CoV-2. However, these data play an important role in assessing and forecasting the further course of the pandemic.

Virologists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig have identified a crucial survival factor in viruses. Their results were recently published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and could lead to a paradigm shift in virus immunology.

In meningococci, the RNA-binding protein ProQ plays a major role. Together with RNA molecules, it regulates processes that are important for pathogenic properties of the bacteria. Meningococci are bacteria that can cause life-threatening meningitis and sepsis. These pathogens use a small protein with a large impact: The RNA-binding protein ProQ is involved in the activation of more than 250 bacterial genes. ProQ ensures that meningococci can better repair their DNA if damaged and it makes them resistant to oxidative stress. Both these factors contribute significantly to the bacteria's pathogenic properties. This was reported by research groups led by the Würzburg scientists Christoph Schoen from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) and Jörg Vogel from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in the journal Nature Communications. The HIRI is a joint institution of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the JMU.