FORINGEN

RESEARCH NETWORK FOR INFECTOGENOMICS

Logo Research Association FORINGEN

The association

Despite increasing medical progress, infectious diseases continue to pose a substantial threat to the human population. New types of pathogens emerge, chronic infections advance (increase) and the rise of multi-resistant pathogens challenges modern medicine as they evade established treatment methods and seem to be always one step ahead. Today scientists have a much deeper insight how pathogens mutate and adapt to the host. Due to genomic research the characterization of genomic sequences of numerous pathogens could be achieved in the past ten years. Surprisingly, most pathogens seem to have a higher potential to adapt to surrounding conditions than expected before. Genomic research describes an infection as battle between the host genome and the permanently altering viral genome. Similarly, this can be observed for most malignancies. Here the host genome is as well not able to defeat the transformed genome of the tumor cell. Due to modern methods of genomic and proteomic research scientists gain completely new insights in the interaction between pathogens and host. Based on these new findings the research network FORINGEN aims at improving diagnostics, therapy and prevention of infectious diseases. Hereby researchers from the field of infection biology at the universities of Würzburg, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Regensburg, Greifswald and Munich work in tight collaboration with partners form the biotech-industry. The research cooperation is funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation with 1,75 Mio. € for 3 years, another 1,85 Mio. € are provided by the industrial partners.

Information

Launching date

12.2005

End

11.2008