Bettina

As a new member of RESIST we welcome PD Dr. Sabine Pirr. Why are newborns and especially premature infants so susceptible to severe infections compared to older children or adults? PD Dr. Sabine Pirr is investigating this question. In particular, she is focusing on the role of breast milk in the development of the immune system and microbiome of preterm infants. "Of particular interest to me are the cellular composition of breast milk, with changes over the course of breastfeeding, and the mechanisms of transmission and consecutive neonatal infections with human cytomegalovirus," she says. PD Dr. Pirr is a [...]

The team of the Center for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) gave a warm welcome to seven RESIST members who came to visit on 29 August. First, the guests received general information about the center in the lecture hall from Prof. Kay Grünewald, the Scientific Director of the CSSB, who is also a RESIST researcher. Afterwards, the research of the 18 CSSB (including five associated) research groups and the four central facilities was presented to them in an interesting and descriptive way by the respective group leaders in short lectures. Prof. Blanche Schwappach-Pignataro, Chair of the CSSB Council and Dean [...]

The 50 or so guests who came to this year's summer RESIST network meeting, which took place in and around TWINCORE on August 25, were lucky with the weather. Because shortly before it started in the afternoon, the sun replaced the rain and it shone until the evening. So RESIST co-speaker Prof. Förster could welcome all present on the terrace and meadow, after which everyone could enjoy a delicious barbecue buffet and have a relaxed chat. RESIST members exchanged ideas, made new and deepened existing contacts, while the children who had brought along were perfectly integrated into a fun [...]

The summer academy "Lower Saxony International Summer Academy in Infection and Immunology (LISA)" has started - with young students of life sciences and medicine (Bachelor / Master) from about 20 countries, who are aiming for a PhD in immunology or infection research. LISA includes lectures where lecturers present their scientific work and participation in practical demonstrations and laboratory rotations. The Summer Academy takes place in TWINCORE, for the twelfth time - this year from August 27 to September 15, 2023. This year's program will be significantly supported by RESIST. The content of LISA has also been adapted in line [...]

Prof. Galardini finds causes for bloodstream infections in the genes of bacteria. This will enable better diagnostics and vaccinations in the future. Escherichia coli bacteria live in the intestines of humans and play an important role there for normal intestinal function as well as for a functioning immune system. These intestinal inhabitants do not form a uniform population, but consist of a large number of strains that differ greatly in their genome and also in their metabolism. Most strains of E. coli are harmless, but some can cause diarrhea or urinary tract infections and – if they enter the [...]

Bioinformatics is fascinating: It enables us to use computer-based methods to gain insights into biology and medicine – for example, to decode the human genome. In order to learn more about bioinformatics methods and working methods, 17 (post-) doctoral students and group leaders participated in the first "RESIST Bioinformatics Summer School" which aim to teach the analysis of bulk and single-cell Transcriptomics using the programming language R and the MHH High Performance Computing Cluster “Leine”. It took place for the first time, from July 17 to 21 at the MHH, and was funded by RESIST. The course leader was [...]

For his exceptional contributions to the scientific community, Prof. Dr. Rolf Müller received the prestigious Charles Thom Award from the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB). The award recognizes the remarkable scientific achievements of Prof. Müller, founding and scientific director of the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and professor of pharmaceutical biotechnology at Saarland University. In addition, the award emphasizes the importance of original research in advancing industrial microbiology and biotechnology. The award is named after Charles Thom, a pioneer in industrial microbiology and mycology. With it, SIMB honors researchers for outstanding achievements in industrial microbiology [...]

Artificial intelligence in scientific research: developments, challenges, future Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming scientific research: AI systems like AlphaFold, RoseTTAFold, and ESMfold have revolutionized protein structure prediction. Now large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are democratizing scientific writing and coding. However, AI use might raise ethical concerns, including potential misuse and authorship issues. The use of AI in the life sciences recently got into public focus with neuronal networks such as AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold which are able to predict a protein's three-dimensional structure from its amino acid sequence, a longstanding challenge in molecular biology. They are now accelerating many [...]

Here it is - the summer RESIST newsletter! You are welcome to read an article about Artificial Intelligence in scientific research written by Prof. Bosse starting on page 1. On the next two pages you can see photos and articles about the RESIST Retreat and the meeting of three clusters of excellence, and on pages 4 and 5 we have prepared topics that are especially interesting for young scientists. We are particularly pleased to introduce you to dedicated female scientists from the MHH Institute of Virology who are committed to sustainable research and have come up with something special [...]

Commitment to sustainable scientific research Lights off, refrigerator closed, fume hood sash down - these are simple but very effective measures that can save a lot of energy in a laboratory. Many people are aware of this. And yet the issue of sustainability in research needs momentum so that laboratory work does not consume ten times as much energy and four times as much water as office work - as is currently the case. A nudge in the direction of sustainable research was given by Kristine Oevel of the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMB), who gave a [...]