From October 2026 to July 2027, Prof. Irah King, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, will conduct research at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). His stay is supported by the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award is endowed with 60,000 euros.

New active ingredients for drugs to treat infections, cancer, or other serious diseases are often based on substances originally discovered in microorganisms, plants, or other living organisms. Producing or improving such active ingredients in a targeted manner using microorganisms is often challenging because the underlying biological processes are extremely complex. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) have now shown that artificial intelligence can help with this task. Using AI, they developed novel protein building blocks for biological production systems. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Bacteriophages are viruses that exclusively infect bacteria and are therefore considered a promising treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections. The annual World Phage Day on October 22 also highlights this potential. At the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, junior research group leader Dr. Milan Gerovac will investigate bacteriophages in even greater detail in the future. For his research on permanent bacteriophage infections, he has received a five-year grant of 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC).