RESIST develops individual strategies against infections

Why are some people more susceptible to infectious diseases than others? How do viruses and bacteria manage to cause disease? RESIST is investigating these and other questions. To find answers, the research team is studying viral and bacterial pathogens on the one hand and the human immune system and genes on the other. In particular, the scientists are interested in how the pathogens and the immune system interact with each other. The aim of RESIST is to enable medical treatments to be tailored more individually to each person in order to prevent infections more frequently, diagnose them more accurately and treat them more effectively in the future. These infections are also particularly relevant in connection with modern medical treatment options such as the care of very immature premature babies or organ transplant patients. The spectrum of pathogens researched by RESIST includes hepatitis and herpes viruses as well as bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus.

Among other things, the RESIST projects are dedicated to investigating how the body supports or inhibits the replication of viruses. To this end, multiomics analyses are used, combining various “omics” data – such as genome and proteome. In addition, the scientists are investigating factors that promote severe bacterial infections and the dynamics within microbial communities. The researchers also use modern models that mimic human organs. With these so-called organoids, they search for important molecular “switches” in the human body that control the life cycle of viruses.

RESIST research is particularly patient-oriented: well-characterised cohorts with data from patients and healthy volunteers are available. The interdisciplinary team members come from both clinical practice and basic research and computer science. Collaboration with clinical and translational centres – including the German Centres for Infection and Lung Research – ensures that new findings can be quickly transferred into clinical practice. This is because all RESIST projects always focus on patients.

Involved Institutions:

• Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB)
• Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)
• TWINCORE Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research
• University of Freiburg