Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Matthias H. Tschöp

CV
 

Matthias H. Tschöp is the CEO and Spokesperson for the Management at Helmholtz Munich since 2018 and ‘Alexander von Humboldt’ Professor at the Technical University of Munich since 2012. His vision is to position the region Munich as a world leading hub for biomedical research in order to efficiently find new solutions to the health challenges facing our rapidly changing world. He is realizing this by advancing excellence in basic biomedical research and accelerates its translation into personalized prevention and new precision therapies.

Matthias Tschöp (*1967), the physician, scientist and science manager, has made pioneering discoveries in the diabetes and obesity research fields. His achievements include the discovery of the hunger hormone ghrelin as well as the discovery of gut hormone polyagonists, a group of active agents that can significantly improve weight reduction in obesity as well as blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes. The drug Tirzepatide (Mounjaro), produced by Lilly, was the first polyagonist, which was approved for use back in May 2022 (previously in the USA) and another 10 polyagonists are on their way to approval in clinical trials.  

Born in Munich and a family man, he knows the different perspectives between medicine and research from his own experience: After obtaining his license to practice medicine from the Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital, he moved to the United States to work in diabetes research for a pharmaceutical company, co-founded a start-up and headed a research institute at the University of Cincinnati as a professor and research director before returning to Germany after more than ten years abroad. He turned the Helmholtz Diabetes Center into a world-leading research institution as its founding director and launched the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus before he joined the executive board.