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To ensure that vaccines provide strong and lasting immunization, it is often necessary to supplement the actual vaccine (antigen) with additives that stimulate the immune system: adjuvants. Today, only a few substances have been approved for use as adjuvants. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has now introduced a spectrum of potential adjuvants. They started with the immune stimulant α-glactosyl ceramide (α-GalCer) and synthesized many different variants from a set of four building blocks.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the establishment of a German-Ukrainian core of excellence to help discover new anti-infectives and make them available for medical purposes. The core of excellence, funded with 2.5 million euros, is to be located in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv - in collaboration with Saarland University and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). In the long term, the core of excellence should establish itself as an independent research institution and strengthen scientific relations between Germany and Ukraine. The HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with Saarland University.

Improving health care and strengthening personalized medicine: A new research center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and causal methods in medicine (CAIMed - Lower Saxony Center for Artificial Intelligence and Causal Methods in Medicine) is being established in Lower Saxony. Researchers in computer science and medicine from Hannover, Göttingen and Braunschweig will develop innovative methods and applications of artificial intelligence. The Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation are providing 15 million euros from the joint "zukunft.niedersachsen" program for the next five years. Prof Wolfgang Nejdl from the L3S Research Centre at the Leibniz University of Hanover (LUH) will act as spokesperson. Two of the new research groups will be set up at sites of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI).

The list of “Highly-cited researchers” is published annually by Clarivate Analytics to honor scientists who have made a particularly significant impact in their fields. Five heads of department at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) are among the honorees in 2023: bioinformaticians Prof Alice McHardy, Prof Yang Li and Prof Andreas Keller, biotechnologist Prof Marc Stadler and the Scientific Director of the HZI and geneticist Prof Josef Penninger were recognized for their scientific publications in the past year.

Professor Thomas Pietschmann, Scientific Co-Director of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Professor of Experimental Virology at Hannover Medical School (MHH) and virologist at TWINCORE - Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research—a joint institution of the MHH and the HZI—has been elected to the DZIF Executive Board by the members of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). Pietschmann's term of office begins on 8 November 2023.