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On the current situation in Israel
The Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany expresses its deepest condolences for the victims of the terrorist attacks on Israel. In particular, our sympathy is with our friends and colleagues in the Israeli scientific community. Israel has been and will always be a prime partner for the German research and innovation community.
12.10.2023
HZI Campus
New findings on SARS-CoV-2: Jun Prof Mathias Munschauer with PhD student Sabina Ganskih in the lab.
News
A human factor
How SARS-CoV-2 initiates its replication process during infection is not yet fully understood. Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg have now shown for the first time in the journal Cell that it is the human protein SND1 which works together with the viral protein NSP9 to stimulate the virus’s genetic replication program in infected cells. The scientists were surprised to find that NSP9 acts as the first building block in the production of new viral genetic material. The findings are significant for further basic research, but they could also lead to new avenues for the treatment of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases caused by coronaviruses.
04.10.2023
HIRI
The Microbelix team at the award ceremony at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin ©WID/Gesine Born
News
MICROBELIX conquers the Saarland
The cooperation project MICROBELIX was jointly launched in spring 2023 by researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and the Naturlandstiftung Saar (NLS). Together, both institutions set out to compete in the citizen science contest Auf die Plätze! Citizen Science in deiner Stadt. After a public voting phase and the evaluation by a jury of experts, the MICROBELIX team could claim one of the three winning places and a 50,000 € prize. The award ceremony took place on September 28, 2023 at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.
28.09.2023
HIPS
Mosquito bites into human skin
News
Project "ChloroMalaria": New class of active ingredients against tropical disease
Saarbrücken, 21. September, 2023 - Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) have again succeeded in acquiring funding under the BMBF-funded "GO-Bio Iinitial" program. The funding measure aims to identify promising research approaches in the life sciences, to exploit their innovation potential and to enable a seamless transfer into application. In the now funded project "ChloroMalaria-2", a novel class of natural products for the treatment and control of malaria will be further optimized.
21.09.2023
HIPS
Stephanie Pfänder, winner of this year's Jürgen Wehland Award.
News
Virologist Stephanie Pfänder receives Jürgen Wehland Award
Virologist and Jun Prof Stephanie Pfänder has been awarded the Jürgen Wehland Award 2023. A scientist in the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, her research focuses on so-called emerging viruses, in particular coronaviruses. She received the award during a ceremony attended by the Mayor of Braunschweig, Anke Kaphammel, and guests from science and the alumni network of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI). This is already the ninth time that the HZI has awarded the Jürgen Wehland Award, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, to honour young scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field of infection research. The award ceremony took place at the HZI Forum event centre in Braunschweig.
15.09.2023
HZI Campus
Swabbing a leaf to collect vertebrate eDNA in the Greifswald Botanical Garden.
News
Detecting a vast diversity of rainforest animals by swabbing their DNA from leaves
In a new study, an international research team shows that the very cotton buds, which we all got to know so intimately during the COVID-19 pandemic, are a valuable tool to map biodiversity. This was the result of an international research team led by scientists at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) in Greifswald, a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany. In essence, the researchers demonstrate that a vast multitude of birds and mammals can be detected by simply swabbing the DNA left behind by animals from leaves. They showcased the power of this approach in an ecosystem that hosts a ton of wildlife and where detecting animals has historically proven extremely challenging - the tropical rainforest. The study was published in Current Biology.
22.08.2023
HIOH

HZI in the media

Wie eine Impfung funktioniert und welche empfohlen werden

Eine Impfung bringt das Immunsystem in Stellung, bevor der echte Erreger kommt. Erfahren Sie, wie ...

26.02.2026
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Apotheken Umschau
Experte betont Effekte der Klimaerwärmung auf Infektionen

Handeln für mehr Klimaresilienz forderte Josef Penninger, wissenschaftlicher Geschäftsführer des Helmholtz Zentrums für Infektionsforschung ...

26.02.2026
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Deutscher Bundestag
Wild Monkeys Fall Sick With Mpox After Eating Squirrels: Is This How The Virus Jumped To Humans?

Livia V. Patrono, one of the senior authors at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) in Germany, said in a statement .

 

The research

25.02.2026
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IFL Science
An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox

says Livia Patrono, a veterinarian and disease ecologist at Helmholtz Institute for One Health in Greifswald, Germany. In 2012, an infected

24.02.2026
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Science News
Biosicherheit: Wenn Künstliche Intelligenz neuartige Viren liefert

... Dr. rer. nat. Jakob Wirbel vom Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (Braunschweig). Das Experiment aus Stanford sei ...

20.02.2026
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Deutsches Ärzteblatt
Wie Bakterien ihre Zucker-Tarnkappe stricken: Neuer Ansatz gegen Resistenzen?

... unseres Immunsystems zu entziehen. Strukturbiologen des Helmholtz-Zentrums für Infektionsforschung (HZI) konnten nun mittels ...

18.02.2026
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Bionity.COM
Molecular 'knitting machine' for bacterial capsules mapped in 3D

of our immune system. Structural biologists at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) have now used cryo-electron microscopy to

16.02.2026
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Phys.org
Wohl von Feuerfußhörnchen übertragen: Was man über Ansteckung mit Mpox wissen muss

Was es mit Mpox – früher Affenpocken genannt – auf sich hat, welche Symptome erkrankte Personen haben und wie man sich anstecken kann.

13.02.2026
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Apotheken Umschau
Mpox transmission model sheds light on a medical mystery

Julia Port, research group leader at Germany's Helmholtz Center for Infection Research.

 

"Ongoing outbreaks—particularly those driven by

12.02.2026
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Medical Xpress
Möglicher Ursprung des Affenpockenvirus entdeckt

... Livia Patrono, laut einer Mitteilung des beteiligten Helmholtz-Instituts für One Health (HIOH): Denn dadurch ...

12.02.2026
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n-tv
Neue Strahlenklinik soll Anfang 2027 fertig sein

... für den Neubau der Klinik für Strahlentherapie Würzburg sowie für das Helmholtz-Institut für RNA-basierte ...

12.02.2026
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Main-Post - Karlstadt
Fire-footed rope squirrels identified as a natural reservoir for monkeypox virus

Project

 

Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), together

11.02.2026
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NewsBreak

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