Bacterial infectious diseases are among the most common causes of death worldwide. Antibiotics have been available as extremely successful drugs to combat bacterial infections for around 100 years. Due to antibiotic resistance, the most important drugs against infectious diseases are increasingly losing their effectiveness. In addition, it appears that the development and progression of infectious diseases, as well as protection against them, are influenced much more than previously assumed by the interactions of bacteria with each other and with human cells.

The “Diffusible Signals” research cluster has the scientific goal of decoding the diffusible signals at the interfaces of microbe-host interaction under physiological and pathological conditions and deriving medical benefits from them. The initiative analyzes the diffuse signals in this clinically very important infection process in an integrative manner using approaches from medicine, bacterial and host biology, as well as using methods from the fields of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.

The results should be integrated into an overall picture that will be helpful in the development and preclinical testing of medically useful strategies. This approach is currently unique, even beyond Germany. “Diffusible Signals” successfully combines the complementary research areas of microbiology and infection biology.

Information about the project


Contact: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dominik Heider

Funding: LOEWE Research Cluster