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The detection of bacterial pathogens in clinical samples is an important prerequisite for successful antimicrobial treatment. A team from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and Tel Aviv University, Israel, has now developed molecular probes that can detect different bacterial species with high sensitivity. Bacterial cells activate the probes and make them glow. This signal enables pathogen detection directly in clinical samples. The results were published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

With numerous supporters and cooperation partners, the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) Würzburg celebrated its fifth anniversary today, May 10. The location of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg had invited about 200 guests from science, politics, ministries and authorities to the Würzburg Residence. Together, they celebrated achievements to date and looked ahead to the institute's upcoming projects. Among the guests congratulating the institute was Ilse Aigner, President of the Bavarian State Parliament.

The Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) was ceremoniously founded on 26 April 2022 in Greifswald. The HIOH is a new institute of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, which is being established together with the University of Greifswald, the Greifswald University Medicine and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI) as local founding partners. The founding director is the veterinarian and microbiologist Prof Fabian Leendertz. Research at the new institute will focus on the threats posed by the emergence of pathogens, as well as the epidemiology and ecology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to common medicines and vaccines.

The human gut is colonized by countless microorganisms. Could some of them protect humans from infections? Principal Investigator Alexander Westermann aims to better understand the interaction between host cells, gut bacteria and pathogens. He now receives funding of 1.5 million euros for his research project “GUT-CHECK” from the European Research Council (ERC). Westermann is the fourth group leader at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg to be awarded an ERC grant.

Though it has been eclipsed lately by SARS-CoV-2, there is another global epidemic still threatening people: HIV/AIDS. According to UNAIDS, a United Nations initiative, some 38 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV. Almost as many have died as a result of AIDS since the outbreak of the HIV pandemic in the 1980s. In the search for new approaches to antiviral therapies, scientists at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin have now developed a new technology that can be used to analyze and impact key stages of the HIV life cycle. Their findings were published today in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

The bacterium Escherichia coli is found in the human intestine, and elsewhere. There it is harmless, but in certain conditions it can become a pathogen. It can cause bladder infections or even sepsis. A team of researchers led by RESIST professor Marco Galardini at TWINCORE - Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, a joint facility of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Hannover Medical School (MHH), together with colleagues from the medical faculty of the University of Paris, has now investigated whether certain genes of the bacterium are associated with the severity of the diseases caused. They have now published their findings in the journal PLOS Genetics.