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Displaying results 11 to 20 of 73.
Actinobacteria Metabolic Engineering
The growing resistance towards established antibiotics presents a serious problem especially with infectious diseases. The development of new drugs is mainly based on known molecules and mechanisms, which allows bacteria to assimilate rapidly. Hence, scientists are looking for novel drugs. At the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) , a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) at Braunschweig, the researchers develop new pathways, by which they force actinomycetes to produce hitherto unknown compounds.
Chemical Biology
In their ongoing quest for new therapies against pathogens, scientists are focusing primarily on chemical agents. Discovering new bioactive compounds, characterising their functionality and optimising their properties are the three main goals of the Department of Chemical Biology (CBIO) at the HZI.
Recoding Mechanisms in Infections
Many important viruses such as Ebola, Influenza, and HIV use RNA as genetic material. These viruses have an extremely small genome size compared to the eukaryotic host genomes, and therefore employ various alternative translation strategies such as stop codon read through, leaky scanning, non-IRES initiation and ribosome frameshifting to express their genes by the host translation machinery. Interestingly, the same strategies are also used in the host’s cellular gene expression. With our research we aim to understand how translational recoding changes the rules of standard decoding, allows simultaneous encoding of multiple proteins from the same mRNA and regulates gene expression in time and space. This group is located at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI).
Single-cell Analysis
Pathogenic bacteria can reside in a mammalian host for a life-long period and chronic carriers form a reservoir leading to recurrent infections. Despite the importance of chronic infections for public health, how a subset of pathogens escape the host’s immune surveillance and how the host contains the spread of bacteria are still poorly understood. Scientists within the Single-Cell Analysis group develop and use single-cell transcriptomics and computational approaches to decipher the microenvironments of individual pathogens and ultimately their functional consequences on infection outcome. This group is located at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI).
Biomarkers of Infectious Diseases
The Research Group Biomarkers of Infectious Diseases aims to identify more accurate diagnostic, prognostic and predictive host biomarkers for infectious diseases and the vaccine response. The clinical aims of the group are to help select the most effective, individualized treatment as early as possible, aiming to streamline the use of anti-infectives (improve anti-infective stewardship) and to improve clinical outcome. This group is located at the TWINCORE in Hannover.
Antiviral Antibody-Omics
Antibodies are key components of the adaptive immune system and are critical for defending against infectious diseases. In our research group, we strive to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of antibody-mediated protection, with the ultimate objective of creating novel and more effective vaccine and treatment strategies for infectious diseases. The junior research group is based at TWINCORE in Hannover.
Drug Design and Optimization
In order to combat the increasing number of resistant pathogens, the development of new anti-infective drugs is an important goal for pharmaceutical research. Efficient medications with novel modes-of-action to fight infectious diseases are urgently needed. Below, you may read more about the design, identification and optimisation of new drug candidates. This group is located at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) .
Drug Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is instrumental in all areas of molecular biology, from analysis of genome sequences towards predicting three-dimensional structure of drug-target complexes. We apply cutting-edge bioinformatics and computer science techniques for discovery of novel resistance mechanisms and predicting mode-of-action of bioactive compounds. This group is located at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS)
Microbial Natural Products
Even today efficient drugs against many diseases are missing but finding new active substances is very complex. Support comes out of the ground. Myxobacteria are soil-living microorganisms that produce many active agents. Here you learn more about the search for new compounds with biological activity. This department is located at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) .
Genome Mining for Secondary Metabolites
The misuse of antibiotics on a global scale has led to an ever-growing antibiotic resistance crisis. Novel antimicrobial compounds are urgently needed. Microorganisms are considered to be one of the most prolific sources for natural product drugs including antibiotics. Developing novel genome mining approaches to harness the potential of the underexplored biosynthetic gene pathways and discover novel microbial natural products, is a potential antibiotic resistance crisis mitigation path. This group is located at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS)
