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LOKI - Local Early Warning System for Control of Infection Outbreaks
The LOKI pilot project was launched on 1 July 2022 under the leadership of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and in collaboration with the Academy for Public Health Services (AÖGW), the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). The goal: To provide health authorities with a local early warning system for epidemiologically relevant infection outbreaks in the future - customised and practical.
04.07.2022
HZI Campus
BRICS
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The path to personalised hepatitis D treatment
Hepatitis D is by far the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis frequently leading to liver failure, hepatocellular carcinoma and death. However, there is very limited knowledge on disease pathophysiology and host-virus interactions explaining the large interindividual variability in the course of hepatitis D. Hannover Medical School (MHH) with its Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology and its Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), a joint institution of MHH and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, coordinates an international project for an unbiased screening of a large multicenter cohort of well-defined HDV-infected patients to better understand individual factors determining the outcome of infection and to identify subjects benefitting from currently available treatments. In a highly competitive call for proposals, the D-SOLVE consortium (“Understanding the individual host response against Hepatitis D Virus to develop a personalized approach for the management of hepatitis D”) has received four-year funding of 6.75 million euros from the Horizon 2020 EU Horizon Call „Personalised medicine and infectious diseases: understanding the individual host response to viruses (e.g. SARS-CoV-2)“ of the European Union. In addition to the MHH as project partner and coordinator, institutions from Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Romania are involved in the project.
22.06.2022
CiiM
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COVID-19: Viral load in lungs supports prognosis in severely ill patients
The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can infect various body tissues. While the detection of the virus in the nasopharynx is established as a diagnostic method, the amount of virus found there does not allow a prognosis of the course of the disease. In a recent study, a research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with the University of Rijeka, Croatia, investigated the correlation between the viral load in different tissues and the mortality of patients with a severe course of COVID-19. The researchers show for the first time that viral load can contribute to clinical prognosis, as a higher viral load in the lungs at the time of ventilation correlates with an increased risk of death. In this interview, first author Henrike Maaß and study leader Prof Luka Cicin-Sain, head of the department “Viral Immunology” at HZI, talk about the research results that were published in the journal Viruses MDPI.
20.06.2022
HZI Campus
Modell
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Two bugs with one stone
The development of new active substances against pathogenic bacteria, parasites, fungi and viruses is gaining importance, as established antiinfectives are becoming increasingly ineffective due to the development of resistance. At the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), a team led by Prof Rolf Müller has optimized an antimicrobial natural product that is active against infections with both, the hospital acquired MRSA pathogen and the malaria causing parasite, for preclinical research and future potential application in humans. The researchers have published their results in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
16.06.2022
HZI Campus
HIPS
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25 million euros for research transfer
The State of Lower Saxony bundles top biomedical research in the new "Institute for Biomedical Translation" The COVID-19 pandemic has impressively underlined the enormous importance of a rapid transfer of biomedical innovations into application. The Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg metropolitan region is one of Germany's leading locations for biomedical research. Despite Lower Saxony's internationally recognised research strength in the three clinically highly relevant areas of infectious medicine, organ repair or replacement and neuroscience, the knowledge gained still finds its way into medical application too rarely or too slowly. For this reason, the state of Lower Saxony is now bundling top biomedical research in the "Institute for Biomedical Translation" (IBT).
15.06.2022
HZI Campus
TWINCORE
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ScienceHero Award for Melanie Brinkmann
On 11 June 2022, virologist Prof Melanie Brinkmann was awarded the ScienceHero Prize. With this award, the Konferenz Biologischer Fachbereiche (Conference of Biology Departments) recognises people and organisations that stand for good teaching and creative research. The prize was awarded at the plenary session of the Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultätentag (Mathematics and Natural Sciences Faculty Association), which took place in Braunschweig this time.
14.06.2022
HZI Campus

HZI in the media

Deutschland soll globale Führung in Forschung und Innovation zeigen

Josef Penninger, wissenschaftlicher Geschäftsführer des Helmholtz Zentrums für Infektionsforschung in Braunschweig und Professor für

01.03.2026
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EUROPE SAYS
Darmgesundheit und Hormone: Wie hängt das zusammen?

... Körperzellen. Damit tragen wir, wie das Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) es treffend beschreibt, unseren „ganz ...

27.02.2026
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MSN Deutschland
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
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

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