Doctoral students are researching solutions to prevent stress in laboratory animals and combat soil-transmitted worm infections in humans and livestock
The research training groups “Investigation of behavioral and stress responses to understand and improve models for infectious diseases in animals” and “One Health approach to soil-transmitted helminths” will be funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for an initial period of five years starting in spring 2026. The DFG has approved a total of 18 new research training groups, which will receive a total of around 130 million euros in the first funding period. Research training groups offer doctoral students the opportunity to pursue a doctorate in a structured research and qualification program at a high academic level. The DFG currently funds a total of 214 research training groups, four of which are led by Freie Universität Berlin and another four involve the FU.
News from Jun 19, 2025
The approval of two new graduate programs in veterinary medicine at Freie Universität Berlin is impressive proof of the strength of research in this field. The Research Training Group “One Health Approach to Soil-Transmitted Helminths,” which is dedicated to combating worm infections in humans and animals and their impact on the environment, also strengthens the Global Health research focus within the Berlin University Alliance.
In the Research Training Group “One Health Approach to Soil-Transmitted Helminths” (spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Susanne Hartmann) is researching solutions for the sustainable control of helminth infections. Soil-transmitted helminths are parasitic worms that are transmitted to humans and animals via soil contaminated with worm eggs. These infections are widespread in low- and middle-income countries, with a quarter of the human population suffering from these chronic infections. In addition, these worm infections also pose a major resurgent risk to the health of our important livestock (pigs and chickens) in Europe due to the growing share of organic farming. Extremely long-term soil contamination with infectious worm eggs is one of the problems associated with these infections. The sustainable control of helminth infections has hardly been studied scientifically to date. The GRK “One Health Approach to Soil-Transmitted Helminths” aims to close this research gap by taking a holistic view of human and animal health and the associated environmental aspects (health system and socioeconomics).
Infectious diseases cause enormous damage to animals and humans. The Graduate School “Research into behavioral and stress responses to understand and improve models for infectious diseases in animals” (spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Christa Thöne-Reineke) therefore aims to expand knowledge about infectious diseases in animals while reducing the burden on laboratory animals in research by recording stress reactions and behavioral changes at an early stage for different laboratory animal species and pathogen classes – at the metabolic level and through video observation and AI analysis. Research into infectious diseases in animals is currently based mainly on research with laboratory animals, which provides important insights into the course of infection and the immune response and is therefore of great importance for veterinary and human medicine. To date, most of these animal models cannot be replaced by alternative methods due to the systemic nature of the disease mechanisms. However, there is potential to minimize the disease burden on laboratory animals through refinement measures such as those being investigated by the graduate school. (jkr)