Some people become only mildly ill when they ’catch’ viral or bacterial infections, whereas others are affected much more severely. But what are the reasons for these differences? And how can the course of a disease be predicted and personalised treatments developed?

These questions are being addressed by the RESIST Cluster of Excellence team. This will enable them to help people with a weakened immune system, including newborn babies, the elderly, people with congenital immunodeficiency, those whose immune system is suppressed for therapeutic reasons, and implant users.

Our research programme is for the weakest. The current threat of the corona pandemic clearly shows how important the goals of our Cluster of Excellence RESIST are. We want to better understand the variable susceptibility of individuals to infections in order to protect vulnerable people as well as possible. In view of the dramatic situation, we in RESIST are also researching around SARS-CoV-2.