Heidelberg

The human immune system can effectively prevent and control viral infections. While many viruses can be neutralized and eliminated from the human body, other viruses persist after infection. However, they are often controlled throughout the entire human lifespan (e.g. certain herpes viruses like CMV infections). The critical function of the [...]

Acute hepatitis is usually caused by known (hepatitis) viruses, toxic substances, or autoimmune diseases. In about 10-20 percent of cases of acute hepatitis, however, no such cause can be found. Many of these cases show laboratory or histologic evidence of a viral etiology, but the known viruses that cause acute [...]

Organ transplant patients usually have to take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent their bodies from rejecting the organs. This therapy suppresses the physiological immune response to tumors and infections. The therapeutic goal for this patient group is to achieve an optimal balance between immunocompetence and [...]

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and other epidemics in recent decades have highlighted the need to develop effective measures to combat emerging infectious diseases in a timely manner. For most emerging viral pathogens, no vaccines or antiviral drugs are yet available. Since it is difficult to predict which virus or viral variants [...]

The development of potent antiretroviral treatment (ART) strategies has significantly changed the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from a lethal disease to a chronic livable condition for infected individuals with access to care. However, in spite of ground-breaking advances in anti-HIV treatment, cure or eradication attempts have so far failed [...]

Children as well as HIV-positive adults often suffer from extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Due to the low sensitivity of routine microbiological TB tests, it is often difficult to obtain confirmation of mycobacterial disease. Point-of-care ultrasound (POC-US) is becoming increasingly established as a promising method for the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of [...]

While our understanding of the immune response to malaria improves, an efficient malaria vaccine remains elusive. We intend to use blood stage attenuated parasites which can be transmitted through mosquitoes as tools to dissect human responses to malaria parasites and as a novel vaccination strategy. To rapidly screen genetically modified [...]

Advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most common chronic illnesses in Germany. In the affected dialysis patients, the immune system is weakened and the susceptibility to infection is increased: Pneumonia caused by pneumococci is one of the most common causes of death, although patients are vaccinated against [...]

Major abdominal surgery in particular is associated with high postoperative infection rates. Despite well-established surveillance systems for surgical wound infections, there is a lack of comprehensive reporting on infectious complications and the impact of the use of anti-infectives during and after surgery. The TIARA project aims to close this knowledge [...]