Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
The scientists of the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research study the mechanisms involved in infectious diseases and defenses against them: What makes bacteria or viruses turn into disease-causing pathogens? How can we intervene in the infection process?
Latest News
26.01.10
Rejuvenating the old immune system
Researchers from HZI are investigating the development of novel therapies to make the old immune system young again.
Thanks to the progress in health care and improved living conditions, we live longer. The price we pay: Our immune system loses functionality with advance age and the susceptibility to infections increases. The members of the research group "Infection immunology" at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany are investigating this aspect of aging using a mouse...
17.12.09
Invasion without a stir
HZI researchers redefine the invasion mechanism of Salmonella.
Bacteria of the genus Salmonella cause most food-borne illnesses. The bacteria attach to cells of the intestinal wall and induce their own ingestion by cells of the intestinal epithelium. Up till now, researchers assumed that Salmonella have to induce the formation of distinctive membrane waves in order to invade these gut cells. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)...
30.11.09
It takes two to infect
Structural biologists shed light on mechanism of invasion protein.
Bacteria are quite creative when infecting the human organism. They invade cells, migrate through the body, avoid an immune response and misuse processes of the host cell for their own purposes. To this end every bacterium employs its own strategy. In collaboration with a British research group, structural biologists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany...
25.08.09
Casting out devils
Scientists from Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research are researching how salmonella kill tumours.
Salmonella are regarded as bad guys. Hardly a summer passes without severe salmonella infections via raw egg dishes or chicken that find their way into the media. But salmonella not only harm us – in future they may even help to defend us against cancer. The bacteria migrate into solid tumours and make it easier to destroy them. Furthermore, in laboratory mice they independently find their way...
20.07.09
The right messenger for a healthy immune response
Researchers from Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany, decipher special role of the messenger Beta-Interferon for immune responses.
Cells of the immune system communicate using molecular messengers. One group of these substances are interferons. During a virus infection, the immune system increases the production of interferons such as Beta-Interferon, thus alerting immune cells to combat the infection. Furthermore, Beta-interferon also has tumour fighting qualities and – used as a therapeutic against multiple sclerosis – is...
