United against Infections

Dr. Georg Schütte, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, launched the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF) in Berlin today. DZIF is the youngest of six German Centres for Health Research that the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) has initiated in recent years. From now, the new centres will create the optimum research conditions to develop better strategies for combatting common diseases such as infections. Schütte met with high-level representatives of German infection research at the festive kick-off event in Deutsche Telekom’s Berlin representative office.

Berlin – “Infectious diseases are still one of the main causes of death around the world,” begins Prof. Dr. Martin Krönke, head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at the University Hospital Cologne and Chairman of the Executive Board of DZIF. “New, unknown pathogens are continually emerging. And the situation has only worsened in recent times, as many bacteria have become resistant to our antibiotics.” This affects developing countries and industrial nations alike, Krönke continues. DZIF is now tackling this challenge. Scientists at seven locations are conducting research under the centre’s umbrella “United Against Infection”.

DZIF is the most important affiliation of university and non-university infection research establishments in Germany. The BMBF has entrusted DZIF with accelerating translational research, as State Secretary Georg Schütte explains: “We have a very strong pure research base for infectiology in Germany. The results from this research are now going to culminate much faster in specific therapeutic benefits for patients. This is why we have established DZIF as one of the German Centres for Health Research.” DZIF is an opportunity for new cooperatives and creates the infrastructures where ideas for new therapies and diagnostic methods will be efficiently translated from pure research into clinical practice.

Scientists from the leading research institutes throughout Germany are joining forces by combining all of their expertise into DZIF. The centre’s projects will continually deepen their understanding of pathogens, from which they will develop new therapeutic methods. This knowledge goes directly into application-oriented research cooperatives with clinics and pharmaceutical companies to get the results to the patient as quickly as possible. The first projects are already well underway: Building upon the enormous expertise in malaria research of all DZIF partner sites, for instance, translational research projects are spurring on the development of new strategies for treating and preventing malaria infection.

Success will require the close collaboration between universities and non-university research establishments. “Only together can we develop our research results far enough to justify clinical tests,” asserts DZIF Executive Board member Prof. Dr. Dirk Heinz, Chief Scientific Officer of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research where the DZIF branch office resides. Performing these tests will also require collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. Setting the stage for the appropriate cooperatives will therefore be one of the top priorities of DZIF, says Heinz. Alongside translational research, DZIF is also focussed on training. “Gaining young scientists and medical specialists for infection research and arming them with optimal skills for their careers is the mission of the newly founded DZIF Academy,” says Prof. Dr. Ulrike Protzer, who heads the Institute for Virology at Technische Universität München and at Helmholtz Zentrum München. As a DZIF Executive Board member, she also coordinates the new centre’s academy. Partner sites of the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF)

Partner sites of the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF)

Bonn-Köln
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Universitätsklinikum Bonn
Universität zu Köln
Universitätsklinikum Köln
Gießen-Marburg-Langen
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
Phillips-Universität Marburg
Paul-Ehrlich Institut, Langen
Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen

Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel
Universität HamburgUniversitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin (Leibniz Gemeinschaft)
Heinrich-Pette-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Experimentelle Virologie
Universität Lübeck
Forschungszentrum Borstel, Leibniz-Zentrum für Medizin und Biowissenschaften

Hannover-Braunschweig
Medizinische Hochschule Hannover Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung Twincore - Zentrum für Experimentelle und Klinische Infektionsforschung Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover Leibniz-Institut DSMZ - Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Technische Universität Braunschweig

Heidelberg
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg

München
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum München
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Klinikum der Universität München
Technische Universität München
Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München
Helmholtz Zentrum München – Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt
Institut für Mikrobiologie der Bundeswehr

Tübingen
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie