Portrait Irah King
© Katja Gollas, edited by HIRI
Irah King conducts research as a guest scientist at HIRI with support of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award
News

Humboldt fellow investigates intestinal infections at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research

Guest scientist Irah King receives Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award

From October 2026 to July 2027, Prof. Irah King, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, will conduct research at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). His stay is supported by the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award is endowed with 60,000 euros.

King is a professor of microbiology and immunology at McGill University and director of the university’s Center for Microbiome Research. His research focuses on a complex ecosystem: the human gut. Specifically, he studies infectious diseases and the immune system of mucous membranes, which serve as an entry point for pathogens.

At HIRI, King will collaborate with Prof. Emmanuel Saliba, head of the group “Single-Cell Analysis”, among others.

The Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award 

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation presents approximately 20 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Awards annually to internationally renowned academics from abroad in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments in research. The award is named for German astronomer and mathematician Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784–1846) and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. 

Further information
Portrait Luisa Macharowsky

Press contact

Luisa Härtig
Manager Communications
+49 931 31-86688

Research Groups

Locations

Related News

Portrait of Jiteshkumar Deore in front of a gray wall
Portrait

Helmholtz Global Fellow at HIPS

Through the Helmholtz Global Fellow Program, the Helmholtz Association supports outstanding international researchers whose projects bring fresh scientific momentum to Helmholtz centers. One of these fellows is Dr Jiteshkumar Prakash Deore, who has been conducting research at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) since May 2026. In Dr Kenan Bozhuyuk’s group "Synthetic Biology of Microbial Natural Products", he is working on new synthetic biology platforms for the development of antimicrobial agents.
Macrophages under an electron microscope
News

“Kill switch” for scavenger cells

Macrophages are considered the “scavenger cells” of the immune system, but some pathogens exploit these very cells as hiding places. Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg and Philipps-Universität Marburg have now discovered a mechanism that helps immune cells to balance their response to infection: a long non-coding ribonucleic acid called SAILR, which acts as an apoptosis regulator. The findings were published recently in the journal PNAS.
Camilla Ciolli Mattioli
Portrait

Between the lab bench and the desk

Camilla Ciolli Mattioli’s workday often begins in a place that many group leaders gradually trade for their desks over the course of their careers: the laboratory. “At the moment, I still carry out many experiments myself,” says the head of the research group “Systems Microbiology of Intracellular Pathogens,” which was launched in February at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). Her lab is still being set up—with her right in the middle of it. “I work closely with my team and teach my lab members the necessary procedures,” she adds.