topic Hightech Strategy

Infection and Inflammation

Together with cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases are the most common cause of death worldwide. Illnesses such as hepatitis, tuberculosis and AIDS as well as new viruses and pathogens also pose a threat to western industrialized countries: Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, vaccination fatigue is growing and long-distance travel is promoting the spread of infectious diseases all around the world. Recent research has also found causal relations between infections and certain types of cancer, stomach ulcers and inflammatory joint diseases.

Infections play an important role in more diseases than we used to assume. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has therefore also established the Integrated Research and Treatment Center (IRTC) Jena (Integriertes Forschungs- und Behandlungszentrum (IFB) Jena), which is focusing on sepsis control and care.

CSCC: In the fight against sepsis

Sepsis, commonly known as blood poisoning, always develops from a local infection. If the body does not succeed in limiting this infection to its place of origin, the pathogen's toxins cause an inflammation of all the body's organs. Within a few hours, all the vital organs show signs of inflammation with the threat of organ failure.

Incidents of sepsis occur just as frequently in Germany as heart attacks with 220 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year. More than one third of the people affected die as a result. Most of the patients who survive suffer from the long-term effects of sepsis for the rest of their lives.

The Center for Sepsis Control and Care (CSCC) at Jena University Hospital is establishing new structures and career prospects in university medicine and at the same time introducing new approaches to the overall treatment of patients suffering from sepsis: ranging from risk assessment and correct diagnosis to rehabilitative measures to make the long-term effects of sepsis more bearable.

The BMBF has been funding a total of eight Integrated Research and Treatment Centers (IRTC) (Integrierte Forschungs- und Behandlungszentren (IFB)) in Germany since 2008. Each centre receives a maximum of five million euros per year. The centres are funded for a period of five years and each has a different focus.

Clinical infectiology research

Over the coming three years, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will provide Jena University Hospital with €2.3 million for the establishment of a clinical infectiology research group. This research group will set up and supervise a hospital-wide advisory service for medical staff on the topic of infections. It will thus contribute towards recognizing and eliminating shortcomings in hospital procedures and building design which encourage the spread of infections. Furthermore, ten beds will be made available at Jena University Hospital for patients infected with multi-resistant pathogens.

These structural measures will also be used to address specific research questions and the Jena research group will conduct four projects to study infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. The scientists want to fathom out the mechanisms that make bacteria resistant. Only if these processes are understood, can new drugs be developed or existing substances modified to make these dangerous infections treatable.

More information on this topic is available here.  

Focus of health research on EHEC

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) occur naturally in the bowels of ruminants. They can be transmitted directly or indirectly from the animal to humans and trigger diseases. This means that they belong to the group of zoonotic pathogens.

The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) expanded research into zoonotic pathogens following the outbreaks of avian flu and swine flu. They also launched a research platform for zoonoses and established the basis for gaining a better understanding of the transmission of animal pathogens to humans under a comprehensive BMBF funding programme.

What are zoonoses precisely?

Zoonoses are infectious diseases that are caused by bacteria, parasites, fungi, prions or viruses and which can be transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa. In recent years, zoonotic pathogens have caused great public concern on several occasions, particularly the epizootics "avian flu", "swine flu" and the latest example ECEC.

Zoonoses research agreement

The BMBF provided funding of €24.6 million for collaborative research programmes into zoonotic diseases between 2007 and 2010; a further €28 million are being made available up to 2013. These funds include approximately €4.2 million for the FBI-Zoo - Food Borne Zoonotic Infections of Humans project over the next three years. Scientists in this research collaboration are studying the ecological, epidemiological and infectious properties of bacterial zoonotic pathogens which are relevant for Europe.

More information on the FBI-Zoo project is available here.

The Federal Cabinet approved a research agreement on diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans (zoonoses) on 22 March 2006. The BMBF, BMELV and BMG are involved in the programme. The transmission of pathogens from animals to humans is to be studied more intensively through better cooperation between veterinary surgeons and medical doctors.

The BMBF has been providing funding to a research platform for zoonoses since 2009 in order to coordinate and network research activities on zoonotic infectious diseases in Germany and to promote the broader horizontal networking of human and veterinary medicine. The head office is divided between three locations: the TMF in Berlin, the Institute for Virology at Münster University and the FLI on the Isle of Riems.

Promoting young scientists in the field of neglected diseases

Transmissible diseases often have particularly serious consequences in regions that are affected by poverty and represent one of the most common causes of death. Many of these diseases have been insufficiently researched because they are of little relevance for highly developed countries. These diseases are therefore called neglected diseases. Industrial nations, however, have a special responsibility to step up their support for research and measures to combat these poverty-related diseases within the framework of their commitment to improving health for all people. This responsibility is also reflected in the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals.

The BMBF is supporting the development and expansion of research capacities in the field of neglected and poverty-related diseases by setting up junior research groups and providing mobility scholarships. The objective is to expand research capacity on poverty-related infectious diseases on a long-term basis in association with partners from countries that are especially affected by these diseases. This new funding measure complements ongoing efforts, particularly efforts to support clinical trials to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa under the EDCTP (European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership).

The BMBF presented its new funding scheme for Neglected and Poverty-Related Diseases ("Vernachlässigte und armutsassoziierte Krankheiten") in 2011. With this funding scheme, the BMBF has defined a new strategic focus and describes its plans to continuously increase research funding for these diseases.

Research collaborations NGFN-plus: RNomics and miRNAs in infectious diseases

Two collaborative projects are studying the role of regulatory RNAs - both in the host and the pathogen - in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. The focus is centred on herpes viruses, bacteria and eukaryrotic parasites, inter alia. The projects' aim is to make full use of the regulatory mechanisms for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Research networks on susceptibility and resistance to infections

The elucidation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of pathogen-host interaction is already well advanced. However, the significance of the body's own natural resistance to invading micro-organisms for susceptibility to infectious diseases has only recently become apparent. Natural resistance is the product of the complex interaction of various components, such as the natural immune system, body proteins that promote resistance and the organ-specific composition of bacterial microflora. Increased knowledge in this field offers new approaches for disease-related research into important infectious diseases. At the same time, it also provides an opportunity to systematically influence natural resistance to infectious diseases and to develop new strategies for therapy using components of natural resistance.

Interdisciplinary collaborations have been receiving funding since 2007. The range of topics includes tuberculosis, staphylococcus aureus infections of the skin, gastro-enteric infections, hepatitis C and sepsis.

Clinical infectiology/Clinical research groups

The BMBF has been funding clinical research groups to support the development of  clinical infectiology at university hospitals since 2000. Professors for clinical infectiology have been appointed at the universities that are receiving funding. This means that new competences for clinical research into infectious diseases have been established in Germany which extend beyond the scope of the original projects.

Further information is available here.