Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)

The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig is a publicly funded research centre with more than 800 employees and an annual budget of approximately 90 million Euros as well as an additional approximately 19 million Euros of external funds from national and international support programmes, and industry. The focus of its activities lies in the field of infection. The mission of the HZI is to rise to the societal challenges of infectious diseases by investigating their fundamental pathogenesis mechanisms, with the aim of deriving innovative approaches for their prevention, diagnosis and therapy. The HZI is also member of the German Center for Infection Research (35 research institutions located at seven sites), with the managing office being located at the HZI campus.

Main roles in project

The HZI will be responsible for the overall coordination of the project. The HZI will also contribute to the scientific tasks by providing expertise and technologies in the fields of vaccinology, immunology and adjuvants. More specifically, the HZI will evaluate the safety, immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the experimental vaccine candidates against influenza in a preclinical setting in the model organism mouse. Furthermore, it will contribute to the evaluation of the immunogenicity of the vaccines, in terms of adaptive immune responses, in the phase I and IV clinical trials. The results gained from these comprehensive assessments together with correlation-analyses will allow a deep insight into phenotypic and functional immunological changes induced by the vaccine candidate, as well as the identification of putative biomarkers of responsiveness to vaccination.

Contact: Prof. Carlos A. Guzmán