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Antibacterial drugs are important to treat infections. But increasing bacterial resistance to current drugs — making them ineffective or only partially effective — means that new ones are urgently needed. Building on previous work, researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), together with an international team of collaborators, have demonstrated a potential antibacterial treatment from a biosynthetic derivative of darobactin, a bacterial natural product. The team reports proof-of-concept animal trials on infections caused by bacteria, including Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii that are known to develop drug-resistance. This ACS Infectious Diseases study was published during the World Health Organization’s World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week from 18 to 24 November 2024. The HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with Saarland University.

The annual World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (WAAW) is a global campaign to draw attention to the dangers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It also aims to inform people about behaviors that can reduce the occurrence and spread of drug-resistant infections. The WAAW is celebrated every year from November 18 to 24. The motto in 2024 is “Educate. Advocate. Act now.”.

Professors Ivo Boneca (Institut Pasteur, Paris), Mark Brönstrup (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig), and Christophe Zimmer (University of Würzburg) have jointly been awarded one of the most prestigious European research prizes, an ERC Synergy Grant worth eleven million euros. The trio is pursuing an AI-based approach to make the systematic search for new antibiotics more efficient.

The Helmholtz Association has appointed internationally respected US-based scientist Martin Keller as its new president. Following a unanimous vote by the Assembly of Members last Wednesday, the Helmholtz Senate approved the decision today. Keller has lived in the United States for nearly three decades, during which he has held various scientific leadership roles at prominent institutions. Since 2015, he has directed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. His term begins on November 1, 2025.

The Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) is growing: In the past three years, the institute – a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in collaboration with Saarland University (UdS) – has appointed five professors together with the UdS. To further strengthen the focus on active ingredients at the Saarbrücken campus, the university has filled two additional professorships in this field. To ensure that the researchers have adequate laboratory and office space, several construction projects are planned that will provide space for 330 researchers by 2029. The structural expansion is financed by federal and state development funds totaling 55.7 million euros.

Our immune system successfully defends itself against pathogens on a daily basis - often without us realizing it. We notice other encounters with pathogens through cold symptoms, fever or a red, swollen area. Our immune system is then working at full speed. Prof. Kathrin de la Rosa wants to be one step ahead of the pathogens. Since 2024, she has headed the department “Personalized Immunotherapy” at the Centre for Individualized Infection Medicine (CiiM) - a joint institution of Hannover Medical School and the HZI. In the HZI podcast InFact, she reports on how she wants to improve individual defense mechanisms in people whose immune system cannot cope with the pathogen on its own and explains why she is copying tricks from nature.