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Challenge #64

Personalized therapies against viruses and bacteria.

Each person has individual characteristics that can influence the course of infection. We research these personal molecular characteristics and thus ensure that people with illnesses find a suitable therapy more quickly.

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Why do people react so differently to infections, vaccinations and therapies? Do innate characteristics play a key role in this process, or are the influences more dependent on environment?

HZI is investigating these questions at its Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM). As it becomes increasingly clear that the success of a treatment depends in large part on the molecular profile of the patient, such as genes or other influences, such studies will only become more vital. The researchers at CiiM are therefore looking for characteristic properties or molecules in patient data. With these so-called biomarkers, they could divide patients into different groups in the future and develop suitable therapies for each of them. Physicians, on the other hand, would then know beforehand which individuals would not respond to a therapy - or whether an antibiotic or a vaccination would work.

(Header: whiteMocca/Shutterstock)

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