Eine Kamera ist auf eine reflektierende Glasscheibe gerichtet.
© DZIF

News

All current DZIF news can be found here.

18 to 24 November: World Antimicrobial Awareness Week

This year again, from November 18 to 24, attention is being drawn worldwide to the threatening increase in resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents. The World Health Organisation (WHO)

Negative-stained transmission electron micrograph in black and white of round hepatitis B virus particles in white, in which internal structures are visible, against a dark background.
© Betty Partin/CDC

New study shows significant antiviral activity of the agent bulevirtide for the treatment of chronic hepatitis D virus infection

Between 10 and 20 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis D virus (HDV). HDV infection is always associated with hepatitis B virus infection. So far there has been no satisfactory

Left panel: grey electron microscopic image of rod-shaped M. tuberculosis bacteria; right panel: image of a circular phylogenetic tree depicting the genetic relationship between M. tuberculose strains
© S. Homolka, T. Gutsmann/Borstel; CC BY 4.0/Finci, I. et al.

Personalised antibiotic treatment strategies for tuberculosis patients

Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with an estimated 1.4 million deaths and ten million people infected annually. Resistant and multidrug-resistant (MDR) variants of the

Namibian mother and daughter, dressed in T-shirts and skirts, the woman additionally wearing a green-brownish-coloured headscarf, squatting in front of a light blue-coloured wall.Eine afrikanische Mutter mit Tocher, beide tragen T-Shirts und Röcke, die Mutter zudem ein grün-schwarz gemustertes gebundenes Kopftuch. Beide hocken vor einer hellblau gesprichenen Wand.
© Christoph Lange

BCG tuberculosis vaccine only effective in early childhood

In the early 20th century, French scientists Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin developed a vaccine from the bovine tuberculosis bacterium Mycobacterium bovis, which was named BCG (Bacillus Calmette

Two young female scientists in a biomedical laboratory evaluating a purple-stained plaque assay in cell culture plates with 12 wells each.
© MHH/Kaiser

RESIST: Finding new inhibitors against coronaviruses

Finding active agents against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses—this goal has been pursued by DZIF scientist Prof Thomas Schulz and his team at Hannover Medical School (MHH) since the virus first

Electron microscopic image of green-coloured MERS-coronavirus particles. Clearly visible are the spike-proteins on the surface of the virus particles that resemble a crown and give the coronavirus its name.
© NIAID

Booster vaccination with newly developed vaccine against MERS-CoV leads to robust long-lasting immunity

Besides SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is among the highly pathogenic coronaviruses that can lead to severe respiratory disease and death. It is

A left hand in a blue lab glove, holding a 12-wells-cell culture plate that is being filled with culture medium by a transparent plastic pipet, of which only the lower part can be seen.
© T Volz / UKE

A roadmap for the future of hepatitis B therapy development

Worldwide, 880,000 people die each year as a result of infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Antiviral drugs that can suppress replication of the virus are available. However, these must be

Lab of the US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), showing two researchers and workplaces with computers and blood sample tubes.
© MHRP

Diagnostic biomarker for early detection of active tuberculosis in HIV-infected individuals

Specific biomarkers in the blood can indicate the onset of tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-infected individuals six to twelve months earlier than TB diagnosis by sputum. This is the finding of researchers

Scanning electron microscope image showing SARS-CoV-2 (round gold objects) emerging from the surface of green- and violet-coloured cells cultured in the lab
© NIAID

T-cell immune response can control SARS-CoV-2 virus replication in immunocompromised patients

In a case study, scientists of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf investigated the T-cell response of a cancer patient, who was

Three young researchers, (left) Prof. Jan Heyckendorf, (centre) Maya Reimann (both DZIF), (right) Dr. Sebastian Marwitz (DZL), are the joint recipients of the Award for Clinical Research of the German Society of Pneumology.
© Medizinische Klinik Borstel; Privat; Privat

Clinical Research Award for DZIF and DZL tuberculosis researchers

This year's Award for Clinical Research of the German Society of Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP) went to a group of three young researchers from two German Centers for Health Research. Maja