The FZB investigates chronic inflammatory diseases of infectious and non-infectious origin, especially of the lungs.

A particular focus of infection research at the FZB is tuberculosis (TB), still the most important bacterial infection of humans, and its pathogen, the tubercle bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The importance of tuberculosis research at the FZB is highly topical, especially in view of the increasing incidence of multi-resistant and extremely resistant M. tuberculosis strains in immigration countries.

In the course of establishing the German Center for Infection Research, the FZB established the "Tuberculosis Center Borstel", which combines research activities in the fields of molecular epidemiology, population biology and molecular pathogenesis of clinical Mtb isolates, structural biology, cellular microbiology, infection immunology and experimental anti-infective therapy as well as clinical diagnostics, therapy and prevention of tuberculosis and focuses them strategically on combating MDR/XDR tuberculosis.

The FZB homepage can be found here.