German Centre for Infection Research

TTU HIV

Prof. Marcus Altfeld, Head of the department of Virus Immunology, has been the spokesperson and coordinator of the TTU HIV since 2019. Within this TTU, the LIV is involved in the following research projects:

"Immune control of HIV-1"(joint project)
contact at LIV: Prof. Marcus Altfeld, head of the department Virus Immunology

"Reduction and elimination of HIV reservoirs"(joint project)
contact at LIV: Prof. Marcus Altfeld, head of the department Virus Immunology

DZIF Academy funded scholarships:

• "Lymphgewebe-Organoide zur Untersuchung von Geschlechtsunterschieden bei der Größe und Charakteristik von HIV-Reservoirs" (Clinical Leave Programm)
• "Immunkontrolle des HIV-1 Reservoirs im Gehirn durch NK-Zell-Effektorfunktionen gegen infizierte Mikroglia" (Clinical Leave Programm)
• "Auswirkungen der Typ-I-IFN-Antwort auf die Größe des HIV-1-Reservoirs" (MD Programm)

TTU Infections of the Immunocompromised Host

The following projects are studied in the TTU Infections of the immunocompromised host:

"Lead generation and in vivo potency testing of novel HCMV inhibitors with new modes of action" 
PI: Prof. Wolfram Brune, head of the department Virus-Host-Interaction

"Entwicklung eines attenuierten Affenpockenvirus für diagnostische Anwendungen" 
PI: Prof. Wolfram Brune, head of the department Virus-Host-Interaction

"Lead Optimization of AHPs as Novel CMV-Inhibitors"
PI: Prof. Kay Grünewald, head of the department Structural Cell Biology of Viruses
Joint project with Prof. Martin Messerle (project coordination) and Prof. Jens Bosse from Hannover Medical School (MHH) as well as Prof. Dagmar Wirth, Prof. Mark Brönstrup and Dr. Katharina Rox from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)

"Small molecule inhibitors of clinically relevant human polyomaviruses"
PI: Prof. Adam Grundhoff, head of the research group Virus Genomics
Joint project with Prof. Nicole Fischer, head of research group Diagnostic and Molecular Virology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)

TTU Emerging Infections

The following projects are studied in the TTU Emerging Infections:

"T-705 derivatives to combat avian and human influenza" 
PI: Prof. Gülşah Gabriel, head of the department Viral Zoonoses - One Health

"Identification of novel pan-flavivirus inhibitors"
PI: Dr. Pietro Scaturro, head of junior reserach group Systems Arbovirology
 

TTU Overarching Projects

The bridging project "Establishment of an open source DZIF microbial cell-free DNA reference meta-database"
PI:  Prof. Adam Grundhoff (LIV), Prof. Nicole Fischer (UKE), Dr. Marc Lütgehetman (UKE) in collaboration with Heidelberg and DZIF-associated partner sites Berlin and Frankfurt

The LIV technology platform Next Generation Sequencing contributes to several DZIF projects across sites and TTUs.