©BNITM | Dino Schachten

Research data management

Connecting research data, enabling new discoveries

BNITM is now a member of the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). As part of this nationwide network, the Institute contributes its expertise in infectious disease and global health research and helps make research data secure, findable and reusable in the long term. This will benefit new research questions, data-driven methods and AI applications alike.

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Foto des erfahrenen ghanaischen Forschers Prof. Alexander Debrah mit verschränkten Armen.

©KCCR

Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR)

New Director of KCCR

From August, Prof. Alexander Yaw Debrah will head the KCCR in Ghana, a joint initiative of the BNITM, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Ghanaian Ministry of Health. Find out about his vision for practical healthcare solutions and how he intends to forge even closer links between research, talent development and global partnerships.

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Photo of Culex in the lab during a blood meal with Q-Tip

©BNITM | Dino Schachten

Sleepless under the city lights

Research project on mosquito behaviour

Streetlights, warm nights, open windows: artificial light can keep mosquitoes active for longer. Evidence suggests they stay out later, bite over a longer span of hours and enter winter dormancy later. That could raise the risk of pathogens such as West Nile virus circulating more easily. In the LUMEN consortium project, an interdisciplinary team led by the BNITM is examining how risks can be predicted and reduced.

The photo shows a green rice field in Madagascar against a blue sky. A farmer is harvesting barefoot in fresh water.

©Jule Hameister

Award

When parasites slow down viruses

Barefoot in the rice fields, with water up to the ankles: In Madagascar, many people come into contact with the pathogens that cause schistosomiasis. The parasites are transmitted by freshwater snails. But why is there hardly any Dengue? Jana Hey investigated this in her dissertation and discovered surprising correlations. For her work, she received this year’s doctoral award from the Association of Friends and Supporters of BNITM.

The photo shows two men in white lab coats setting up a glove box.

©Uganda National Health Laboratory and Diagnostics Services (NHLDS)

Bundibugyo virus

East Africa deploys mobile laboratories

During the Ebola fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the East African Community has set up and put into operation its network of mobile laboratories at key border points. Over many years, BNITM has co-developed this network and trained the lab teams. With the EU-funded MOBILISE project, a mobile high‑containment laboratory truck is now being used in Tanzania for the first time.

Das Foto zeigt einen Ausschnitt einer Zellkulturplatte, in denen Hirnorgoinde kultiviert werden. Es sind 8 Wells zu sehen, die mit rosanem Zellkulturmedium gefüllt sind. In den Wells sind jeweils ein Hirnorganoid, also runde hautfarbene Gebilde, zu sehen.

©BNITM | Lina Widerspick

Publication

Ebola in the brain: new insights

Ebola viruses can hide in the central nervous system and remain dangerous months or even years after infection. Researchers at BNITM and their collaborators have used human cerebral organoids to investigate the mechanisms behind this viral persistence. The results, published in Nature Microbiology, provide important clues about the long-term consequences of Ebola infection.

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