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New DESY initiative for infection control

Press & Communications

New DESY initiative for infection control

Artist's impression of a virus

The aim of the new analytical platform is to provide maximum support for molecular infection research and drug development. DESY is the perfect location for this platform as one of the leading international research centres with its high-tech accelerator facilities and scientific competence. Researchers from the fields of fundamental research, applied research and industrial research and development can thus make use of infrastructures across all areas. For DESY itself, this would mean that necessary analytical methods such as X-ray analysis at PETRA III and later at PETRA IV would be expanded and a user facility for cryo-electron microscopy would be established.

Important partners have already been acquired for this forward-looking analysis platform, including the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Heinrich Pette Institute, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf.

The City of Hamburg also welcomes the DESY initiative. Peter Tschentscher, Hamburg's first mayor, says: "In my opinion, the campus is an ideal location for the project planned by DESY. The establishment of a national platform for infection research would fit perfectly into the development of the planned Science City Bahrenfeld." Discussions with representatives of various ministries are being held in Berlin for federal support. A decision at federal level as to whether or in what form this idea can and should be implemented will probably be made this year.