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Tracking Down the AIDS Pathogen
Noted international experts will be gathering at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) on January 31, 2008, to discuss the current state of AIDS research. In addition to scientists from Germany and Europe, experts from Israel and the United States will be…
Molecular Attachments Determine Mortality of Cancer Cells
A highly promising molecular constellation, discovered in the field of pharmaceutical cancer research, is now better understood in terms of its efficacy, thanks to years of laboratory testing. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in…
Invasion without a stir
Bacteria of the genus Salmonella cause most food-borne illnesses. The bacteria attach to cells of the intestinal wall and induce their own ingestion by cells of the intestinal epithelium. Up till now, researchers assumed that Salmonella have to induce the formation of…
It takes two to infect
Bacteria are quite creative when infecting the human organism. They invade cells, migrate through the body, avoid an immune response and misuse processes of the host cell for their own purposes. To this end every bacterium employs its own strategy. In collaboration with…
When intestinal bacteria go surfing
The EHECs adhere to the surface of the mucosal cells and alter them internally: a part of the cellular supportive skeleton - the actin skeleton - is rearranged in such a manner that the cell surface beneath the bacteria forms plinth-like growths, so-called pedestals.…
Brothers in Arms
Influenza, or flu, is an unpleasant affair with fever, cough, as well as head and body ache. When this illness is further complicated by a bacterial pneumonia, a harmful superinfection develops. Until now, researchers thought that the flu facilitates an infection with…
When necessary, the lung slows down the immune system
The lung’s mucous membrane comes into contact daily with thousands of molecules – many of them are harmless and many are threatening. In the latter case, defence mechanisms need be activated. If defence overshoots the mark, then it has to be restricted. Moreover, the…
Help for children with sick hearts
Each year, around 15 million children fall ill with rheumatic heart disease worldwide; half a million of them die as a consequence. At the beginning of the medical cases of these children stands a simple throat infection with streptococcus – spherical bacteria…
When acute hepatitis develops into chronic hepatitis
Hepatitis B is the most prevalent infectious disease in the world. It results in either an acute infection or, in rare cases, it can develop into a chronic disease. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig have now examined the…
When the hunters become the hunted
The immune system defends the body against pathogens. Macrophages are part of the first line of defence: they identify pathogens that have gained entry and destroy them. Bacteria that infiltrate the body are not powerless to resist the macrophages, however. Substances…
