Press Archive
15.05.12
HZI awards young infection researchers
The Jürgen Wehland Prize – endowed with 5000 Euros – is announced / application deadline 1 July
For the second time, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Friends of the HZI support young scientists with an award in memory of the former Scientific Director of the HZI, Professor Jürgen Wehland.
02.05.12
HZI opens study centre in Hannover
Long term medical studies of chronic diseases planned
The new premises of the HZI study center in Hannover have been opened with an official ceremony today.
In the future, long-term population studies with voluntary probands will be conducted in the new centre. The results are supposed to shed new light on chronic diseases such as cancer or dementia. “We want to study how currently neglected factors, among them infections, influence the risk to...
29.04.12
Direct access to desired genes
Study of natural compounds made simpler: Bacterial researchers develop improved DNA technique
Targeted exchange of DNA segments instead of tedious search: German and Chinese scientists have developed a technique for the direct isolation of genetic information from complex mixtures of different bacteria. Compounds produced by bacteria can often be used as pharmaceutics, for instance as antibiotics or chemotherapeutics. With the new method, they can be produced in the...
29.03.12
The Achilles' heel of cancer cells
University and HZI researchers discover many tumor cells cannot survive without the presence of an enzyme known as 'Ark5'
Scientists at Germany's University of Würzburg along with their Braunschweig colleagues at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) recently discovered the existence of a weak link in certain types of cancer cells that may prove a promising target for novel kinds of drug treatments in cancer therapy. The pharmaceutical industry has already expressed an interest in the discovery. The...
02.03.12
Why Immune Stem Cells Disappear As We Age
German scientists illuminate underlying mechanism
With advancing age, a person's immune system often grows weaker. One reason behind this is the gradual decline of the stem cell population that the body draws on in its ongoing effort to replace old worn-out or damaged immune cells. Now, scientists at the University of Ulm, Germany, in collaboration with the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, have at last...
23.02.12
Access to Hightech Infrastructure all over Europe
New Alliance “Instruct” connects cutting edge technologies across the borders
Making the most advanced technologies available to researchers all over Europe is the goal of the initiative “Instruct”. Fifteen research institutes from eight countries have launched this cooperation today in Brussels. Many more are supposed to follow and further broaden the shared technological basis. The HZI and four other German institutes are part of this alliance.
Instruct’s main focus...
20.02.12
Dangerous bacterium gets cold feet
Helmholtz scientists disarm plague pathogen's next of kin
In medieval Europe, the Black Death once decimated large parts of the population. Although in Europe no longer a genuine cause for concern, in Africa, South America, and India the Bubonic plague still to this day poses a viable threat to public health. The culprit behind the pandemic is a bacterium of the genus Yersinia. Each year in Germany, the pathogen's slightly less virulent relative is...
10.02.12
Targeting the bacterial protective shield
Research consortium set on developing new drugs that target bacterial biofilms
Slime-like and near impenetrable are biofilms built by a number of bacterial cells during the course of an infection. Typically, they are composed of long molecular strands called polymers. Many different species of bacteria, among them dangerous pathogens like Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus, use biofilms to shield themselves against the host's immune system attacks and antibiotics'...
31.01.12
Customized vaccine in a nasal spray format
HZI scientists investigate new approach to targeted activation and inhibition of defender cells
Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, are currently investigating Alpha-GalCerPEG, a substance capable of activating target groups of cells that are part of the body’s innate defense system. While many defense cells are activated by Alpha-GalCerPEG, T helper 17 (Th 17) cells are actually inhibited by it. Because uncontrolled activation of Th 17...
13.01.12
Cancer Research Award for HZI Scientist
January 16th, 2012: Lars Zender receives Johann-Georg-Zimmermann Award
Prof. Dr. Lars Zender has received one of the most distinguished German cancer research awards. The Johann-Georg-Zimmermann Award, endowed with 10 000 Euro, highlights Zender’s findings on chronic liver damage and liver cancer development. Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) developed in livers after chronic infection with Hepatitis-B and -C virus. Zender is heading a research group at the...
