Prof. Dr., med. Irmela Jeremias

Irmela Jeremias is a trained pediatrician with extensive research experience in the field of hematologic malignancies. She studied Medicine at universities in Germany and Columbia and started as a resident at Dr. von Haunersches Kinderspital of LMU Munich in 1993. During her Postdoc in Heidelberg at the German Cancer Research Center from 1996 to 1998, she explored mechanisms of apoptosis in pediatric tumors. Afterwards she started her own lab at the Dr. von Haunersches Kinderspital, where she also continued to work as an attending physician in Intensive Care and as board certified pediatrician. In 2005, she built up a junior research group at Helmholtz Munich and since 2017, she is tenured research group leader and head of the Research Unit “Apoptosis in Hematopoietic Stem Cells” at Helmholtz Munich.  

Irmela Jeremias' long-term goal is to develop novel therapeutic strategies that overcome treatment resistance and eliminate leukemia stem cells, thus preventing tumor relapse. Driven by a special interest in precision oncology, her ultimate vision is to cure leukemia patients. Using primary cells from patients with acute leukemias, her team develops patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of acute leukemia and uniquely modifies them genetically with lentiviruses, setting a global standard in this approach. In vivo studies on modified PDX cells allow to unravel the molecular role of individual molecules in patients’ stem cells in vivo. Recently, she focused on functional genomics and used among others CRISPR-based techniques including in vivo CRISPR drop out screens in PDX models to identify targetable tumor vulnerabilities. Additionally, in relevant pre-clinical treatment trials monitored by in vivo imaging, she validates novel treatment strategies in a highly patient-related setting for their translational potential into clinical trials. The value of her innovative approaches has been recognized by researchers around the world, sparking numerous collaborations focused on developing new therapeutic options. Further highlighting her passion for collaborative research, she is part of the German Cancer Research Center and multiple research initiatives from Collaborative Research Centers to leukemia study groups.