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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
In the ACME graduate programme, researchers are searching for new cell-based defence mechanisms against viruses and bacteria, while also training the next generation of scientists. The project is being funded by the German Research Foundation over a period of five years and will start in April 2026.
Infections are among the most common diseases and cause high costs for healthcare systems. Although medicine is making continuous progress in prevention and treatment, infections remain one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The problem is that more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them, and effective drugs against viral infections are generally in short supply. The Research Training Group ‘Activation of Cellular Anti-Microbial Effectors’ (ACME), led by Professor Dirk Schlüter, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at Hannover Medical School (MHH), is now tackling this challenge from within – or, more precisely, from inside infected cells. The researchers aim to influence the molecular mechanisms by which pathogens misuse the body's cells as a place to multiply and to strengthen the cells' own internal defences in order to better control infections. As part of this research, the research training group is training 20 doctoral students in natural sciences and ten in medicine, as well as one young scientist in each field. The German Research Foundation is supporting this innovative project over a period of five years with a total of around 7.2 million euros, with the option of a further four years of funding.
Activating defence mechanisms within cells
The focus is on human infections with alpha herpes and influenza viruses, as well as bacteria for which intracellular infections are a significant part of the disease process. Most bacteria exist outside cells, for example in the gastrointestinal tract, on the skin or in the blood. However, some prefer to live and reproduce intracellularly, interacting with the host cell and using its resources and metabolism for their own survival. The researchers now want to search for molecules or structures within the cell that trigger a protective response after being activated by a signal from the pathogen. ‘Such cellular effectors could have the task of recognising the pathogen, controlling it or eliminating it directly,’ explains Professor Schlüter. Other effectors could prevent bacteria and viruses from circumventing the cell's own defence mechanisms or even regulate the controlled cell death of the infected cell. The protective cellular mechanisms are usually precisely tailored to individual pathogens and host cell types, but in addition to pathogen- and cell type-specific effectors, the researchers also want to find new approaches to activate and influence pathogen-independent cell defence mechanisms.
Comprehensive training using state-of-the-art methods
Based on this medically significant research topic, the ACME research training group focuses on training young scientists.
‘Our central goal is to provide young doctoral students in the natural sciences and medicine with comprehensive, interdisciplinary training in the field of infection biology of human intracellular infections in ten scientific subprojects, offering them a wide range of state-of-the-art methodological diversity,’ says Professor Schlüter. The projects are led by 13 internationally renowned researchers from the MHH, TWINCORE Hannover and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI). Their scientific expertise ranges from innovative high-end omics techniques for analysing biomolecules such as DNA or proteins, to the production of human organoids, i.e. tiny organ-like structures from human stem cells, methods of cell and molecular biology, and biochemistry in combination with artificial intelligence and data science.
Cooperation with Danish university and RESIST Cluster of Excellence
The Research Training Group is cooperating with the Centre for Immunology of Viral Infections, a centre of excellence at Aarhus University funded by the Danish National Research Foundation. In addition to seminars by Danish infection researchers in Hanover, which will be coordinated by the Research Training Group together with the RESIST Cluster of Excellence, the collaboration also includes research stays for doctoral students from the Research Training Group in Denmark. The doctoral students' training is accompanied by a structured training programme and targeted individual career support. ‘In this way, we are training young scientists in all the techniques and skills that tomorrow's researchers urgently need to advance the medicine of the future,’ says Professor Schlüter.
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For further information, please contact Professor Dr Dirk Schlüter, schlueter.dirk@mh-hannover.de.
Supporting excellent training for young scientists in the ACME graduate programme: Professor Matthia ...
Quelle: Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
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Supporting excellent training for young scientists in the ACME graduate programme: Professor Matthia ...
Quelle: Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
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