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Displaying results 621 to 630 of 679.
Virology and Innate Immunity
Pathogens (germs) infiltrate our bodies daily but do not remain undetected. They encounter the strong defenses of our immune system, which recognizes invaders and promptly takes appropriate measures. However, many pathogens can produce life-long infections even with an intact immune system. The herpesvirus family is one such group of pathogens. Upon infection, herpesviruses establish a chronic infection and become lifelong companions.
Viral Immunology
“Back then, I wasn’t ill so often”: With advancing age not only the skin loses its elasticity – many organs lose their functions. So does the immune system: Defense cells do not react promptly anymore, and immunological memory is not established. As a result, we are poorly protected by vaccines and more susceptible to infections, but at the same time suffer from inflammatory disease. While the mechanisms of immune aging remain unknown, chronic viral infections are environmental factors that may accelerate the age-related changes of the immune system. Read more about how pathogens may have an impact on the real age of our immune system.
Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology
Vaccination is the most efficient strategy to prevent infectious diseases. The art of the vaccine researcher lies in finding substances that prevent us from falling ill with diseases such as influenza or viral hepatitis. But what makes a vaccine successful and ensures effective protection? Our scientists study the reaction of the immune system to answer that question – and to develop better vaccination strategies.
Prof Dr Yang Li
RNA Synthetic Biology
RNA is a ubiquitous molecule of life that plays intimate roles in how cells function and make decisions. These same properties can be harnessed to create a new generation of engineering tools to further interrogate the properties of biology and control how cells behave. The “RNA synthetic biology” group aims to better understand the roles RNA plays in biology and to exploit these roles to improve how we study, diagnose, and treat infectious diseases in humans. This department is located at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI).
Structural Infection Biology
To understand and eventually manipulate pathways that control the interaction of pathogens (e.g. bacteria, virus, parasite) with their hosts (e.g. human, plants) requires an interdisciplinary research approach, which often combines different fields of research such as cell biology and microbiology. In our laboratory, however, we take a closer look at the processes occurring during an infection at the cellular and atomic level by harnessing a variety of modern biophysical methods that allow addressing the spatio-temporal dynamics of an infectious disease at a high resolution. The department is located at the Center for Structural Systems Biology ( CSSB ) at the heart of the Germany’s largest accelerator center DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) in Hamburg.
Structure and Function of Proteins
Structural biology is a powerful method to derive an understanding of the molecular basis of biological phenomena by visualizing the involved biomacromolecules at atomic resolution. The Department Structure and Function of Proteins uses protein crystallography to investigate proteins that play a role in infectious disease, e.g. by controlling the production of toxic molecules or by acting as toxins themselves. Our research in structural biology is complemented by biochemical and biophysical methods, and we employ all of these technologies to also aid drug discovery projects at the HZI.
RNA Biology of bacterial infections
The Vogel lab strives to chart the diversity of noncoding RNA functions and RNA-binding proteins in major bacterial pathogens and in the hundreds of different bacteria that make up the human microbiome. We develop new RNA deep sequencing-based techniques to capture the RNA world of any microbe, ideally at the single cell level. We want to understand how and why bacteria use RNA as a regulator during infection and exploit this knowledge to target pathogens and edit the microbiota with precision. Projects focus on several bacteria from our major workhorse Salmonella Typhimurium to anaerobic microbes that are associated with colorectal cancer such as Fusobacterium nucleatum . This Department is located at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI).
Personalised Immunotherapy
Our motivation is to address fundamental questions of human immunology and translate them into personalized therapies and diagnostics. Specifically, our laboratory discovers new applications of antibodies and B cells to treat and prevent human infectious diseases. Effective vaccines against some viruses that escape antibody responses remain elusive. To tackle this challenge, we develop methods to better understand B cell responses, the cells that produce antibodies. We design tailored vaccines and provide novel solutions for infection diagnostics. This Department is located at the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine ( CiiM ).
