In Germany, around 10,000 people die every year from antibiotic-resistant pathogens. At the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), scientists are using artificial intelligence to find new antibiotics. In particular, they are looking for active substances that circumvent known resistance mechanisms. They are supported by citizen scientists sending them soil samples from various habitats. On the occasion of World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week 2025, the Helmholtz Association explains how the researchers are fighting against multi-resistant germs.

PhD students play a crucial role in the advancement of knowledge and technologies that shape our world. At the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and its locations, more than 300 doctoral students are working on solving important questions in infection research. Two HZI scientists have now been honored for their successful doctoral theses. Dr. Felix Deschner, postdoc at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), was awarded the Eduard Martin Prize of Saarland University. HZI junior research group leader Dr. Max Kellner received the PhD Award of the Vienna BioCenter for his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna.

Since the middle of the 20th century, antibiotics have been among the greatest successes in medicine. They save millions of lives every year, prevent complications during operations and make many therapies possible in the first place. But their success has a downside: More and more bacteria are developing strategies to evade the attacks of these drugs. Resistant germs are spreading around the globe, against which hardly any drugs are effective. With the annual World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (WAAW) from 18 to 24 November, the World Health Organization reminds us how important it is to use antibiotics carefully and how urgently new approaches are needed to continue fighting infections effectively in the future. Almost 20 research groups in the research topic “Novel Anti-Infectives” at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) are developing new drugs against infectious diseases.