Success for the HZI in the second round of the Excellence Strategy

Group photo — The RESIST Management Board is delighted about the renewed funding. From left to right: Prof Thomas Schulz, Prof Gesine Hansen, Prof Reinhold Förster, Prof Lars Dölken.

News

05/26/2025

RESIST continues to receive funding – new cluster NUCLEATE joins the program

Decisions have been made on future Clusters of Excellence in the second round of competition under the Excellence Strategy – the joint initiative of the federal and state governments to further strengthen top-level research at universities in Germany. The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) is part of two of the funded Clusters of Excellence together with university partners: RESIST and NUCLEATE. RESIST at Hannover Medical School (MHH) will receive funding for another seven years. In this cluster, scientists are investigating how people who are susceptible to infection can be better protected. In the newly approved NUCLEATE cluster at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) with the Technical University of Munich and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, group leaders from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), a site of the HZI in cooperation with the JMU, are conducting research into nucleic acid-based therapies. A total of 70 Clusters of Excellence were selected for funding.

The approval of the two clusters RESIST and NUCLEATE impressively underscores the outstanding quality of research at the HZI and its partner institutions. “This success is the result of a dedicated team effort, with which all participants were able to convince the Excellence Commission,” says Prof. Josef Penninger, Scientific Director of the HZI. “In addition, the HZI stands for exceptional scientific breadth—many other brilliant researchers contribute daily at the highest level.”

RESIST – Research to help the most vulnerable

RESIST (Resolving Infection Susceptibility) is dedicated to investigating why some people become more severely ill than others when they come into contact with viruses or bacteria. Research groups from the HZI in Braunschweig and its sites in Hanover, TWINCORE – Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, and the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM) are involved in the Cluster of Excellence. TWINCORE and CiiM are joint institutions of HZI and MHH. “The further funding of our infection and immunity research means important long-term help for people who can be particularly harmed by infections. These include newborns and senior citizens whose immune system is not yet developed or is very susceptible, as well as people whose immune system is suppressed for therapeutic reasons, such as after a transplant. However, infections can also be dangerous for people with implants. We look forward to continuing to improve the possibilities for diagnostics and therapy in the long term,” says RESIST speaker Prof Reinhold Förster.

“We have already achieved many successes in research. Examples include new approaches to prevent blood poisoning in newborn babies, improved strategies for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and against multi-resistant hospital germs,” explains Prof Gesine Hansen, co-spokesperson of RESIST. The long-term goal is for the research findings gained in RESIST to be incorporated into existing translational centers and further developed for use in patients. Prof Josef Penninger also conducts research in the Cluster of Excellence with his department “Innovative Organoid Research” and says: “We are delighted to continue the excellent research in RESIST. The cluster is an important part of our scientific program and exemplifies the innovative approaches we use to shape the path from basic research to practical applications that benefit patients.”

NUCLEATE – Nucleic acid-based therapies

NUCLEATE (Cluster for Nucleic Acid Sciences and Technologies) is a Cluster in the innovative field of nucleic acids. Its objective is to harness the potential of nucleic acids towards a new understanding of their role in biology and to pave the way into the field of nucleic acid medicine. In the context of NUCLEATE, the University of Würzburg will work together with the two Munich universities LMU and TUM to strengthen interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration in this field.

"With NUCLEATE, we are strengthening Würzburg's role as a leading international location for nucleic acid research. Building on the success of HIRI—the world's first institute of its kind to combine RNA research and infection biology—we are now consistently pursuing this groundbreaking course," says Prof Jörg Vogel, Managing Director of HIRI and head of the department “RNA Biology of bacterial infections”. Vogel and Prof Chase Beisel, head of the department “RNA Synthetic Biology”, will be core principal investigators at NUCLEATE. Prof Emmanuel Saliba and Prof Franziska Faber are also associated with the Cluster of Excellence. Furthermore, Prof Alexander Westermann, who was formerly a group leader at HIRI and has recently transferred to JMU, is an associated scientist with NUCLEATE.

“NUCLEATE investigates fundamental biological principles and mechanisms of action of nucleic acids in the cell in diverse disease contexts,” said Cynthia Sharma, designated representative for Würzburg and holder of the Chair of Molecular Infection Biology II. “I am very happy that our proposal for this Cluster has been successful. In NUCLEATE, our Munich colleagues and we will, for the first time, pursue a nucleic acid-centred approach and investigate both the functions and mechanisms of nucleic acids as actors in the cell and the processes that influence nucleic acids themselves. We will use our findings to develop new nucleic acid-based biotechnological and biomedical applications.”

The two Clusters of Excellence will receive funding for seven years starting on January 1, 2026. Christian Scherf, Administrative Director of the HZI, commented on the significance of the funding: “We are very proud to be involved in two Clusters of Excellence. This distinction underscores the effectiveness of our strategy of working closely with universities. My sincere congratulations go to everyone involved at the HZI and at our partner institutions—your commitment and excellence have made this success possible.”

Original Press Releases

Original press release by RESIST

Original press release by Julius-Maximilians-Universität

Original press release by German Research Foundation