Leibniz Research Alliance INFECTIONS in an Urbanizing World - Humans, Animals, Environments
Improved hygiene and better prevention and treatment have diminished the incidence of infectious diseases particularly in industrialised countries. However, increasing antibiotic resistance, emergence of new pathogens, together with changes in pathogen distribution due to altered climate and mobility are global challenges for humankind. The Leibniz Research Alliance (LRA) INFECTIONS aims to establish an interdisciplinary research agenda and opens up new avenues of communication across disciplines. New strategies and methods for early warning and outbreak management systems will be developed to control spread of pathogens.
NEWS
New pioneering Leibniz Lab to combat future pandemics
The new Leibniz Lab "Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future" links excellent inter- and transdisciplinary research from 41 Leibniz institutes. For the first time in Germany, pathogen-oriented sciences (virology, bacteriology, mycology and immunology) are collaborating with other life sciences such as ecology, health technologies, health economics and educational research. This new instrument of the Leibniz Association will be funded for three years with three million euro. The aim of the Leibniz Lab is to pool research in these areas in order to prepare, to prevent and to respond better to future pandemics and to make the knowledge gained available to policymakers in the form of evidence-based recommendations for action.
Focus on the long-term consequences of infections: International Symposium of the Leibniz Centre Infection
At the beginning of February, the symposium "Long-term Consequences of Infections" of the Leibniz Center Infection (LCI) research network in northern Germany took place in Hamburg with over 120 participants. The Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Borstel Research Center, the Leibniz Lung Center and the Leibniz Institute of Virology - all partner institutes of LFV INFECTIONS - founded this alliance in 2005 in order to strengthen infection research in the Hamburg metropolitan region in the long term.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is not a question of “If” but rather a question of “When”. When microorganisms evolve to resist the selection pressure of antimicrobial therapy, they become a significant risk to public health. Once effective antibiotics, antifungals, antiparasitics and antivirals lose their effectiveness. The World AMR Awareness Week serves as a crucial platform to spotlight this increasing and pressing global health problem and promote worldwide collaborations for sustainable solutions.