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 Research Alliance Leibniz 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.
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Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance Together: Science and Politics in Dialogue
Antimicrobial resistance is a global challenge that effects human health, animal health and the environment. At the Leibniz-Lunch, scientists from Leibniz INFECTIONS discussed the scientific basis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and potential areas of action with members of the German Bundestag.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis in Ukraine driven by transmission of successful bacterial strains
How do resistant strains of tuberculosis develop and spread? One of the largest genomic studies of tuberculosis in Ukraine to date shows that a large number of drug-resistant pathogens belong to just a few, closely related groups of pathogens. The findings highlight the importance of continuous genomic surveillance of tuberculosis and other antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Prof. Dr Stefan Niemann from the Research Alliance Leibniz INFECTIONS was involved in the study.
Leibniz INFECTIONS PhD student Alicia Konrath spent several days at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute in Jena. She learned about new methods and infection assays for her research on Aspergillus fumigatus whilst working in Prof. Axel Brakhage’s Molecular and Applied Microbiology research group. The visit also provided an opportunity to forge valuable scientific contacts and gain new perspectives for her PhD project.
