Infections are among the most common diseases worldwide and despite progress in prevention and therapy, they remain among the leading causes of death worldwide. The increasing antibiotic resistance of bacteria and the lack of effective antiviral drugs represent a major problem. In particular, new therapeutic approaches are urgently needed for intracellular infections caused by facultative intracellular bacteria and viruses. The Research Training Group ACME is based on the central hypothesis that cell-intrinsic defense mechanisms can be activated or modulated to control intracellular pathogens effectively. To exploit this potential, the scientific goal of the RTG is to identify novel, modulable cellular effectors that (i) directly recognize, control, or eliminate the pathogen, (ii) prevent the pathogen from bypassing cell-intrinsic defense mechanisms or (iii) regulate the cell death of the infected cell. Since the protective cellular mechanisms are pathogen- and host-cell-specific, the focus of the Research Training Group ACME is on human infections caused by alpha-herpes and influenza viruses, as well as on bacteria, for which intracellular infections are a major part of their pathogenesis.

This website is currently under construction—please bear with us; new information will be posted here shortly.