Every second complication during a hospital stay can be traced back to them: multi-resistant or highly infectious pathogens with which patients become infected. Stefanie Kampmeir conducts research on prevention, diagnostics and management of multi-resistant bacteria and highly infectious pathogens. The focus of their investigations is on educating people about the accumulation of multi-resistant or highly infectious pathogens in hospitals. In order to curb the transmission within a health institution, the senior physician at the Institute for Hygiene at the Münster University Clinic follows a clear line: She focuses on targeted screening examinations and new molecular typing technologies in order to identify both pathogen-related and person-associated factors, which can promote the transmission of infectious agents in hospitals. In this way, the chain of infection in the hospital – the interruption of which is often a time-consuming, expensive fight – can be stopped at an early stage.