Hannover - Braunschweig

Antibiotic resistance is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. New treatment options are urgently needed. Due to their specificity for certain bacteria, phages represent a conceivable alternative or supplement to antibiotics. The specificity of phages, but also the fact that they have no toxic side effects, make them important research [...]

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 [...]

This project prepares the preclinical development of the semi-synthetic chlorotonil derivative dehalogenil for the treatment of bacterial infections caused by Gram-positive pathogens. Dehalogenil impresses with its potent and very rapid antibacterial effect, which is triggered by membrane depolarization and potassium efflux. Further studies on the mechanism of action have revealed [...]

In the current WHO list of bacterial priority pathogens (WHO BPPL 2024), the World Health Organisation classifies carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria as a high-priority pathogen, which means there is an urgent need for new anti-infectives to combat this problematic bacterium. To address this need, the PAFAP project has brought together a [...]

Hematological stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is one of the most important treatments for haematological malignancies. Two major complications after stem cell transplantations are the development of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and the reactivation of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), which occurs in 60% of seropositive patients. This reactivation can have severe consequences [...]

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 [...]

More than 21 million people in Africa are infected with the threadworm Onchocerca volvulus, the pathogen causing river blindness. About one in ten of those affected goes blind. What is needed are active agents that kill the long-lived adult worms. With Corallopyronin A, DZIF scientists have found an active [...]

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a hospital-acquired pathogen that causes difficult-to-treat infections, especially when caused by antibiotic-resistant isolates. There is a high unmet medical need, particularly for pneumonia, which often progresses to severe disease with high morbidity and mortality despite adequate antibiotic treatment. In order to increase the translational reach of the [...]

Almost every second person worldwide is infected with the pathogenic bacterium Helicobacter pylori that causes chronic gastritis. In about 15 percent of infected individuals, gastric inflammation leads to peptic ulcers, and in one to two percent even to stomach cancer. Timely detection and treatment of the infection with antibiotics has [...]

Bacterial infections are one of the most severe complications in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis. The immune system of this patient group is weakened due to a complex dysfunction of the immune system (cirrhosis-associated immune dysfunction, CAID). The cause of the immune system dysfunction is mainly due to the fact [...]

The challenge of antibiotic drug development today is the discovery and optimisation of novel bioactive compounds that do not show cross-resistances with clinically applied antibiotics, ideally due to a novel mode of action (MoA) which adresses unexploited microbial targets. In the case of chelocardin, this antibiotic substance was identified several [...]

The project “Clinical cohorts for HIV remission” will continue and expand ongoing research around the treatment of primary HIV infection (TopHIV) Cohort of patients with acute HIV infection. Beyond studies about their immune responses and reservoir formation, selected TopHIV individuals will be enrolled into interventional clinical trials using immune modulators [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Helicobacter pylori, Campylobacter jejuni, and Campylobacter coli are among the most widespread bacterial pathogens and responsible for annually hundreds of thousands of cases of diarrhoea, intestinal inflammation, gastric ulcers and stomach cancer worldwide. The research group led by Christine Josenhans at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) is developing pathoblockers [...]

The PAACT project (short for: Precision Access to Antibiotic Compounds and Targets) serves as a hub within the DZIF for the discovery and characterisation of new antibacterial agents and lead structures. In the context of the project, the development pipeline of antibiotic candidates is continuously fed [...]

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 [...]

Gram-negative bacteria are naturally insensitive to many antibiotics due to their additional outer membrane. In addition, the bacteria have acquired resistance to clinically used antibiotics in recent decades, resulting in multidrug-resistant bacteria. Novel classes of antibiotics are needed to counteract these existing resistance mechanisms. However, no new antibiotic class against [...]