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Dr Peggy Riese is a scientist in the Department of Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany. Her research focuses on the special features of the immune system in its interaction with vaccines. In this interview, she talks about current developments in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine research.

In their search for new substances that are effective against infectious diseases, researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) are extracting natural substances from soil bacteria. They are getting help from the public in the course of a citizen science project, which this year recruited citizen scientists from all over Germany on board the exhibition ship “MS Wissenschaft”.

Founded in April 2022, the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) in Greifswald is a new branch of the HZI. What exactly does One Health mean? And why is this research approach particularly important today?

Christian Sieben decided in favour of biology thanks to his older sister, also a biologist, who gave him an early glimpse behind the scenes of this field of study. But the 40-year old‘s career path was anything but classical. After completing his diploma in Darmstadt, he went to Berlin to do his doctorate - in the biophysics department of the Humboldt University. Although he had never been concerned with virology or microbiology during his studies, his research now focussed on influenza viruses and their initial cell contact using super-resolution microscopes for his doctoral thesis. A far-reaching decision: “It was at this time that the foundation for my research today was laid.”

The transfer of research results into application is an important goal of the scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. The GO-Bio initial programme of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is now funding two HZI projects for a one-year concept phase in which the application idea will be elaborated and an implementation strategy developed. The BASIDIOMICS project, led by Dr Frank Surup and Prof Marc Stadler from the department “Microbial Drugs” at the HZI in Braunschweig, is developing a platform to make clinically and industrially relevant secondary substances from fungi accessible. Stadler is also a scientist in the research area “Novel Antibiotics” at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). A new class of active substances against the tropical disease malaria is to be developed in the ChloroMalaria project, led by Dr Walter Hofer and Dr Jennifer Herrmann from the department “Microbial Natural Products” at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). The HIPS is a site of the HZI in cooperation with Saarland University. The projects start on 01 October 2022.

Healthy humans, healthy animals and a healthy environment - the One Health approach does not look at these individually, instead it considers them as a whole. A new alliance led by the University of Greifswald now wants to promote the entire Vorpommern region to a One Health-Region. The concept ‘T!Raum One Health-Region Vorpommern / Partizipatives Innovationsökosystem für gesunde Menschen, Tiere und Umwelt’ which translates to ‘One Health-Region Vorpommern / Participative Innovation Ecosystem for Healthy Humans, Animals and Environment’ shall receive grants of up to 18 million euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to achieve this goal. Together with numerous partners from industry, associations, foundations, arts professionals, public administration, and politics, the university and University Medicine Greifswald, the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), and the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology Dummerstorf will develop this complex process in a One Health research cluster. The HIOH is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, in cooperation with the University of Greifswald, the Greifswald University Medicine and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI).