The scientists of the DFG Research Training Group "Parasite Infections" are dealing with globally spread parasite infections, which represent a major medical and veterinary challenge due to increasing drug resistance, global warming and rising long-distance travel activities. Four major parasite groups are used to analyze infections in wild and domestic animals in Europe and Africa, mosquitoes, and humans. The young researchers will receive interdisciplinary training in the latest technologies at the molecular, cellular and organismal levels. The findings are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the ecological basis and to provide a basis for the development of vaccines. One of the special features of the doctoral program is a field course at the Serengeti Wildlife Research Center in Tanzania. The doctoral program, which is based at Freie Universität Berlin, comprises a network of six other scientific institutions with parasitology-oriented research groups: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Robert Koch Institute, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. The bundling of training offers strengthens the international visibility of infection research in Berlin.
