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Symbol image; hand turns an equal and an unequal sign between the symbols for male and female gender
Story
Am I more likely to have a mild case of pneumonia or is it more likely to be life-threatening? What is my risk of side effects from COVID-19 vaccination? Do I belong to a group of people who are more likely to contract chronic viral hepatitis than others? The answers to these questions vary – depending on your sex and gender. Hospitalised for pneumonia, males are twice as likely as females to need to be transferred to intensive care (see list of sources). Females, in turn, are more than twice as likely as males to suffer side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine. And chronic hepatitis B is more common among males than among females.
08.12.2023
Portrait of Christian Scherf (left) und Josef Penninger (right)
Interview
The message is clear: The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) aims to become one of the world's premier infection research institutes. Professor Josef Penninger, Scientific Director of the HZI since 1 July 2023, has set the bar high. Christian Scherf, the Administrative Director of the HZI since 1 January 2023, is going to do everything in his power to support him.
05.12.2023
Dirk Heinz and Josef Penninger
News
In July of this year, the new Scientific Director, Prof Josef Penninger, took office at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI). He succeeds Prof Dirk Heinz, who stepped down from his position after 13 years and began establishing the new "Molecular Structural Biology" research department at the HZI. On 4 December 2023, Dirk Heinz was thanked for his many years of successful work and the handover of office to Josef Penninger was celebrated in the presence of renowned guests from science and politics.
05.12.2023
Hortense Slevogt
Portrait
Professor Hortense Slevogt is an expert in the field of respiratory and lung infections and immunology. Both as a renowned researcher and a doctor. If you ask her for a catchy name for what she does, she doesn't hesitate: "I build bridges." Bridges between research and clinical practice. Slevogt has been a W3 professor at Hannover Medical School since 2022 and is a senior physician for clinical infectiology with the Department of Pneumology and Infectiology. She is also the head of the "Dynamics of respiratory infections" research group at the HZI in Braunschweig. In her role as a clinical scientist, she finds it extremely fulfilling to translate discoveries from the laboratory and clinical studies into direct benefits for patients.
04.12.2023
Press image
News
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.
04.12.2023
Tabletten
News
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.
28.11.2023

HZI in the media

are extremely complex.

 

Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) have now shown that artificial

21.10.2026
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Phys.org

Würzburg (JMU) und dem Helmholtz-Institut für RNA-basierte Infektionsforschung (HIRI), einem Standort des HZI in ...

20.10.2026
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Regional Heute

community. HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) that operates in collaboration with Saarland University.

20.10.2026
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WDC Tv News

... Verabreichung eintritt. Expertin Berit Lange vom Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung betonte, dass jetzt der richtige Moment ...

16.10.2026
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upday

... Berit Lange im Gespräch mit FOCUS online. Sie ist Leiterin der Abteilung Epidemiologie am Helmholtz-Zentrum ...

16.10.2026
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Focus Online

protection against BV. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research have reported evidence that antibodies produced after

16.10.2026
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Medscape

... ist Leiterin der Abteilung Epidemiologie am Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung in Braunschweig und Mitglied der Ständigen ...

16.10.2026
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Berliner Morgenpost

... beeindruckendes Ergebnis“, sagt Jakob Wirbel vom Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI). „Trotzdem schlafe ich momentan noch ...

15.10.2026
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Der Tagesspiegel

... Lange, Leiterin der Abteilung Epidemiologie am Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung in Braunschweig und Mitglied der Ständigen ...

14.10.2026
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DIE WELT

also included Japanese microbiologists and collaborators from IST Austria and HZI Braunschweig (Germany), demonstrated that actin inhibitors

14.10.2026
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Health Medicine Network

... in der Abteilung „Virale Immunologie“ am Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI), hat die WHO als externer ...

13.10.2026
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DeutschesGesundheitsPortal

tool called Metax, developed by researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and described in the

12.10.2026
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Bioengineer.org

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