Videos

»Mosquito Alert«

Tropical diseases such as dengue and malaria were long considered a distant problem—but today they have reached Europe. In 2025, France reported a record number of locally transmitted chikungunya cases, and the West Nile virus is circulating in Germany. Climate change and global mobility are enabling invasive mosquito species to spread. How great is the danger right on our doorstep?

»Spiders: Between Fear and Fascination«

Exotic spiders are becoming increasingly widespread in Europe: in the terrariums of spider enthusiasts or, like the Nosferatu spider, aided by climate change. Even though they are usually harmless to humans, arachnophobia is a widespread phenomenon. Special therapies are designed to help combat it.

»Insect breeding at Fraunhofer IME in Giessen«

On the occasion of Edible Insects Day, Hessenschau visits Dr Patrick Klüber and his insect farm at Fraunhofer IME in Giessen.

»On the trail of germs – How closely humans, animals and the environment are connected«

Global warming, monocultures and densely populated habitats create ideal conditions for pathogens. They threaten the health of humans, animals and plants. The documentary ‘Keimen auf der Spur – Wie eng Mensch, Tier und Umwelt verbunden sind’ (Tracking Germs – How Closely Humans, Animals and the Environment Are Connected) provides insights into the laboratories and fields of work of interdisciplinary health research.

»Unique sustainable shrimp farm in Giessen«

Most of the prawns on our plates come from distant farms in South America or Southeast Asia, where animal welfare and sustainability are often neglected. In Giessen, a research team has set up a globally unique sustainable prawn farm to develop new knowledge, new technology and practical methods for European prawn farming.

»Strain collection of the Fraunhofer IME in Giessen«

Over 110000 fungi and bacteria are stored in one of the world's largest industrial strain collections at the Fraunhofer IME in Giessen. The microorganisms can help us fight infectious diseases and multi-resistant germs.

»Prof Dr Andreas Vilcinskas in an interview about the planned sustainable insect breeding facility in Giessen«

»Poison of the book scorpion also works against hospital germs«

The book scorpion (Chelifer cancroides), which is only a few millimetres in size, is the best-known member of the pseudoscorpions, an order of arachnids, in Central Europe. It hunts house dust mites, dust lice and book lice in living spaces. It also kills pests in beehives. It often uses its venom to do so. Hessian researchers have now comprehensively characterized the components of this venom for the first time - and discovered molecules with a strong effect against so-called hospital germs. The results may help to combat difficult-to-treat infectious diseases in the future.

»What makes Asian tiger mosquitoes dangerous«

The tiger mosquito is one of the deadliest animals in the world. At the Fraunhofer Institute in Giessen, we are trying to genetically control this dangerous disease vector. With the help of so-called RNA interference, the reproduction of a virus in the tiger mosquito is to be stopped. “With our method, we really only attack the pathogen and not the mosquito, so that the mosquito is still available in the ecosystem as food, for example for birds, but also in the larval stage, for example for fish,” explains Dr. Kornelia Hardes, Deputy Head of the Pest and Vector Insect Control Department at the Fraunhofer IME, Bioresources.

»Insects as a treat«

Dogs eat meat. An entire industry thrives on it. But our colleague Fabiola Neitzel from Giessen has now developed a different way to feed dogs. Fabiola Neitzel founded the company PROMBYX GmbH, which processes silkworm pupae from silk production into a high-quality source of protein for animal feed. In doing so, she also wants to make a contribution to better use of resources in the protein sector.

»Caterpillar helps with chronic intestinal diseases«

Caterpillars help to better understand intestinal inflammation and find new therapies for chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. Around 75% of all genes that cause disease in humans are also present in insects such as the tobacco hawkmoth. For this reason, the tobacco hawkmoth can be used as an alternative animal model to research chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and to test new, urgently needed therapies. Researchers led by Dr. Anton Windfelder are using imaging techniques such as MRI, CT and PET and are developing an innovative high-throughput platform with the caterpillars of the tobacco hawkmoth.

»Spider venom as hope in the fight against diseases of the central nervous system«

The venom of a single spider can contain up to 3,000 components. These components can be used to develop promising drug candidates for the treatment of diseases. A research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME and the Justus Liebig University Giessen shows how they obtain the venom of small and large spiders and why spider venom is considered a hope in the fight against diseases of the central nervous system.

Tutorial: transient production of recombinant proteins

Transient production of recombinant proteins using intact Nicotiana benthamiana plants and Agrobacterium tumefaciens in a process called Agroinfiltration is a powerful tool in research and development. The fast and robust method can yield up to 1mg protein per gram fresh leaf weight. In this video we show you how the plants can be efficiently infiltrated with Agrobacterium-suspension using a simple syringe and how to homogenize plant tissue to extract soluble proteins.

»Insights into research at the branch for Bioresources«

Prof. Dr. Andreas Vilcinskas, head of the Branch for Bioresources, presents the research area of ​​insect biotechnology, which pursues the goal of developing organisms as biological resources for applications in medicine, crop protection and the food and feed industry.

»Natural Products for Biotechnology«

Insects are small creepy-crawlies with great potential - survival artists living in the most inhospitable places. How the molecules they produce enrich research and open up new perspectives for therapies, spotlights a new movie.