Press releases
07.01.11
Tracking down infections with super-microscopes
Green light for the new “Centre for Structural Systems Biology”
Infection researchers and physicists in northern Germany are joining together in the hunt for pathogens: under scientific co-ordination of the Braunschweiger Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), the new “Centre for Structural Systems Biology” (CSSB) is emerging on the campus of the Deutsche Elektron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld. This inter-disciplinary centre with partners...
15.11.10
Casting show within the lymph nodes
Computer models and experiments reveal that seemingly random movements of the cells within lymph nodes facilitate optimization of the immune response.
Lymph nodes are the market place for the immune system; cells exchange information regarding invading pathogens here and prepare an appropriate immune response. What appears from the outside to be meaningless and chaotic teeming of millions of cells is actually a flight-path that is highly coordinated and targeted. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in...
05.10.10
Mice with human body’s defences
New method will simplify study and treatment of diseases
Mice with human body’s defences 0B New method will simplify study and treatment of diseases Therapeutic antibodies can be an efficient alternative when common drugs do not work anymore. However, antibodies obtained from blood of animals such as mice could not be used: The human immune system recognizes them as foreign and rejects them. In an international cooperation, scientists from the...
17.08.10
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research mourns Scientific Director
Professor Jürgen Wehland dies unexpectedly
Braunschweig, August 18, 2010 – The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany is mourning the loss of its Scientific Director, Professor Jürgen Wehland, PhD. On August 16, 2010, Jürgen Wehland died unexpectedly during a vacation in Sweden. “We express our deepest condolences to his family and friends,” says Ulf Richter, Administrative Director of the HZI. “His death...
05.07.10
A new opportunity for hepatitis C research
Scientists at TWINCORE develop new model approaches for HCV research.
The hepatitis C virus is highly specialised. We humans are its natural hosts. The only other living organisms that could be infected with the hepatitis C virus in the lab are chimpanzees. Nevertheless it is – from the viewpoint of the virus – highly successful: around 170 million people are chronically infected with the virus. And with the chronic infection the risk of developing liver cancer...
