Medical luminary awarded best-endowed research prize for Munich

Humboldt Professorship awarded to TU München for Diabetes Research

Prof. Matthias Tschöp (Bild: privat)

12.10.2011, Press releases

The TUM has succeeded again in garnering one of the coveted and top-endowed Alexander von Humboldt Professorships. With Professor Matthias Tschöp from Cincinnati, the University gains an internationally renowned expert in metabolic diseases who will carry out research on insulin resistance at the University. With four Humboldt Professorships to date, the TUM has been the most successful university in this competition for Germany’s best endowed international research award.

The newly created Professorship for Insulin Resistance constitutes an important addition to the Diabetes Research Group established by the TUM in cooperation with the Helmholtz Zentrum München. The research group investigates new insights into the mechanisms that underlie diabetes and other metabolic disorders, on the one hand, and the interaction between genetic factors, lifestyle and environmental factors, on the other. The aim is to develop new options for both the prevention and treatment of these disorders.

“The first step towards the foundation of the Diabetes Research Group at the TUM was taken a decade ago with the establishment of the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Zentrum for Nutritional Medicine, a completely innovative development in the German research landscape at the time. The project now culminates with the appointment of Matthias Tschöp from the US to a Humboldt Professorship. As a university of applied sciences with an unrivalled portfolio of subjects, this further reinforces our activity in the field of biomedicine in cooperation with the Helmholtz Zentrum München,” said TUM President Wolfgang A. Herrmann, commenting on the University’s latest coup.

Prof. Peter Henningsen, Dean of the Academic Department of Medicine, explains: “The new Humboldt Professorship is further proof of the international appeal of medicine at the TUM and its solid roots in a strong research-oriented clinical environment. With his outstanding expertise and experience, Matthias Tschöp is an ideal addition to our research group.”

Prof. Matthias Tschöp was born in Munich in 1967 and completed his undergraduate and doctoral studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München before taking up employment as a post-doc with an international US-based pharmaceutical concern. After working as a scientist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke, he returned to the US where he took up the post of Professor at the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, School of Medicine, University of Cincinnati.

Tschöp is renowned as one of the world’s leading scientists working in the field of metabolic disorders diabetes and obesity. His research focuses on both the exploration of the molecular signaling pathways that play a role in diabetes and insulin resistance, and on new preventive and therapeutic approaches.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards this prize with a view to attracting leading global scientists to Germany. In 2008 the TUM succeeded in nominating bioinformatics expert Prof. Burkhard Rost from Columbia University in New York for a Humboldt Professorship. This was followed by further Humboldt Professorships for communications engineering expert Prof. Burkhard Rost from the University of California in 2010 and computer scientist Prof. Hans-Arno Jacobsen from the University of Toronto in 2011.

Kontakt: presse@tum.de

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