Current Covid-19 news

On April 21, Ulrike Protzer, director of the Institute of Virology, and Andreas Pichlmair, Professor of Viral Immunopathology, will give the Covid-19 Lecture on virus-host interaction. Ahead of the event, Prof. Protzer explains in this interview how effective current antiviral therapies are against Covid-19 and how the development of additional drugs is progressing.

"People should be enabled to make informed decisions," says Katharina Tartler, founder of the university group "VACCtion". The team provides scientifically proven information to those who are skeptical or uncertain about vaccinations. The online lectures are particularly in demand at schools.

The Covid-19 Lectures, a public online lecture series in German language, open on April 14 at 6:15 p.m. with a talk by Prof. Percy Knolle. In this interview the director of the Institute of Molecular Immunology at TUM explains what consequences the excessive activation of the immune system by Covid-19 has for the body and what can be done about it.

What exactly happens when the corona virus SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell? In an article published in Nature, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry paints a comprehensive picture of the viral infection process. For the first time, the interaction between the coronavirus and a cell is documented at five distinct proteomics levels. This knowledge will help to gain a better understanding of the virus and find potential starting points for therapies.

As the past year has shown, science is central to dealing with and combating the Corona pandemic. Researchers are constantly creating new knowledge about the virus, advising policymakers and industry on medical, ethical and social issues. Leading scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Klinikum rechts der Isar will provide insights into their current research on the pandemic with the Covid-19 Lectures Series starting on April 14, 2021 - shedding light on various disciplines.

When airborne pollen levels are higher, increased SARS-CoV-2 infection rates can be observed. These results were determined by a large-scale study conducted by an international team headed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München. Members of high-risk groups could protect themselves by watching pollen forecasts and wearing dust filter masks.

The President of the Robert Koch Institute will speak at the Munich Talks, hosted by the Bavarian School of Public Policy (HfP) / TUM School of Governance, on March 11. Prof. Lothar H. Wieler will offer insights into the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and take questions from the live stream audience.

The pandemic has shown how central science is for many areas of society: researchers are creating new knowledge about the virus, they are developing vaccines and treatment options, and they are advising politicians and industry. In a public online lecture series leading scientists from TUM and the Klinikum rechts der Isar provided insights into their current research on the pandemic - highlighting various disciplines.

At present Germany's elderly are being given priority for Covid-19 vaccination. But what happens when only minimal research data is available on the effects new vaccines have on the elderly? Such circumstances should play a role in ethical considerations of fairness in distributing scarce medical resources, says Alena Buyx, Chair of the German Ethics Council, in the Technical University of Munich (TUM)'s "Covid-19 Lecture Series". Buyx is professor for Ethics in Medicine and Health Technologies at TUM.

A research group has built the world’s largest database on political decisions related to the coronavirus pandemic. With CoronaNet data on approximately 50,000 measures taken in 195 countries, some down to the municipal level, can be retrieved and filtered. As a result, the database offers a highly granular basis for governments, researchers and media to analyze the impact of pandemic policies. The project is being spearheaded by the Bavarian School for Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).