Environmental Health Center, Helmholtz Munich

The Environmental Health Center (EHC) is dedicated to combating diseases caused by environmental factors, such as allergies, asthma, and chronic lung diseases, with the primary goal on prevention. Where prevention is not possible, we aim to advance medicine and develop innovative treatments by understanding the underlying mechanisms and translating these into novel drugs.

The Environmental Health Center (EHC) is dedicated to combating diseases caused by environmental factors, such as allergies, asthma, and chronic lung diseases, with the primary goal of prevention. Where prevention is not possible, we aim to advance medicine and develop innovative treatments by understanding the underlying mechanisms and translating these into novel drugs.

A conceptual image showing a lung-shaped lake in a lush and pristine jungle

A key strength of our research is the comprehensive interdisciplinary approach. Epidemiology identifies the relevant exposures for individual diseases. We then investigate the molecular basis of disease development and identify key mechanisms. Finally, we translate our findings into prevention and novel therapies.

Climate and Health

Heat – When Temperature Impacts Health

Driven by climate change, heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent and prolonged in Germany. Especially for older adults, children, and people with pre-existing conditions, extreme heat can pose a health risk.

Thermometer in front of a sky with sun and clouds

Climate and Health

One Health: Climate Change Triggers Common Diseases

Helmholtz Munich is targeting the four major common diseases known to be exacerbated by climate change: allergies, diabetes, and pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases.

Tired asian woman suffer from sunburn very hot in summer weather problem feel faint,dizzy,difficulty breathing,female teenage with heat stroke,high temperature,burning heat wave hot sun on sunny day

New Hope regarding lung diseases

Lung research at Helmholtz Munich has made some spectacular breakthroughs. They could pave the way for the therapy of serious diseases.

Asthma in children

The Farm Effect

Many children suffer from asthma or allergies. Yet these complaints could be combated as they arise. What strategies is research pursuing and what role does the cowshed play in this?

A little girl looks at a young cow in a field on a warm summer evening.

Staple Foods Defy Climate Change

How researchers from Helmholtz Munich are making wheat, oats, barley, and co. fit for the future.

Prof. Dr. Erika von Mutius

Director Institute of Asthma and Allergy Prevention

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Prof. Dr. Annette Peters

Director Institute of Epidemiology

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Prof. Dr. Önder Yildirim

Director Institute of Lung Health and Immunity

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Prof. Dr. Herbert Schiller

Director Research Unit Precision Regenerative Medicine

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Michael Hoelscher Portrait_unbearbeitet_freigestellt

Prof. Dr. Michael Hoelscher

Director Unit Global Health

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Prof. Dr. Michael Schloter

Director Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analyses

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Prof. Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin

Director Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry

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Prof. Dr. Klaus F.X. Mayer

Director Research Unit Plant Genome and Systems Biology

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Porträt Jörg-Peter Schnitzler_freigestellt

Prof. Dr. Jörg-Peter Schnitzler

Director Research Unit Environmental Simulation

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Porträt Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann_freigestellt

Prof. Dr. Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann

Director Institute of Environmental Medicine

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Porträt Carsten Schmidt-Weber, freigestellt

Prof. Dr. Carsten Schmidt-Weber

Director Institute of Allergy Research

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Doctor drawing man's blood sample in clinic, closeup AdobeStock_1937412501

A population-based cohort study provides new data on the prevalence of early-stage type 1 diabetes in young adults, addressing a gap in epidemiological research. Using samples from the LISA and GINIplus cohorts and methodologies established in the…

Helmholtz Munich has been awarded a prestigious grant of up to 900 000 US Dollar from Breakthrough T1D, the leading global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization. The funding will support the research into early-stage T1D in adults,…

double portrait of Erika von Mutius and Önder Yildirim

For decades, scientists have puzzled over a striking observation: children who grow up on traditional farms are far less likely to develop allergies or asthma than their urban peers. What is it about farm life that protects young lungs?

Photorespiration has long been regarded as an energetically costly side reaction of photosynthesis, reducing plants’ net carbon gain. Now, researchers at Helmholtz Munich, in collaboration with Heidelberg University and the Technical University of…

A recent study from the NAKO Health Study, involving researchers at Helmholtz Munich, shows that while a large proportion of the approximately 80,000 participants maintained stable mental health throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, symptoms of…

Hrovatin, K. ; Sikkema, L. ; Shitov, V.A. ; Heimberg, G. ; Shulman, M. ; Oliver, A.J. ; Müller, M. ; Ibarra Del Rio, I.A. ; Wang, H. ; Ramirez Suastegui, C. ; He, P. ; Schaar, A. ; Teichmann, S.A. ; Theis, F.J. ; Luecken, M.

Considerations for building and using integrated single-cell atlases

He, C. ; Breitner-Busch, S. ; Huber, V. ; […]; Schneider, A.E.

Rainfall events and daily mortality across 645 global locations: Two stage time series analysis

He, C. ; Breitner-Busch, S. ; Zhang, S. ; Huber, V. ; Naumann, M. ; Traidl-Hoffmann, C. ; Hammel, G. ; Peters, A. ; Ertl, M. ; Schneider, A.E.

Nocturnal heat exposure and stroke risk

Wallis, R.S. ; Sabi, I. ; Lalashowi, J. ; Bakuli, A. ; Mapamba, D. ; Olomi, W. ; Siyame, E. ; Ngaraguza, B. ; Chimbe, O. ; Charalambous, S. ; Rachow, A. ; Ivanova, O. ; Zurba, L. ; Myombe, B. ; Kunambi, R. ; Hoelscher, M. ; Ntinginya, N.E. ; Churchyard, G.

Adjunctive N-acetylcysteine and lung function in pulmonary tuberculosis

Jakwerth, C.A. ; Weckmann, M. ; Illi, S. ; Charles, H. ; Zissler, U.M. ; Oelsner, M. ; Guerth, F. ; Omony, J. ; Nemani, S.S.P. ; Grychtol, R. ; Dittrich, A.M. ; Skevaki, C. ; Foth, S. ; Weber, S. ; Alejandre Alcazar, M.A. ; van Koningsbruggen-Rietschel, S. ; Brock, R. ; Blau, S. ; Hansen, G. ; Bahmer, T. ; Rabe, K.F. ; Brinkmann, F. ; Kopp, M.V. ; Chaker, A.M. ; Schaub, B. ; Von Mutius, E. ; Schmidt-Weber, C.B.

17q21 variants disturb mucosal host defense in childhood asthma

Schwarz, M. ; Schneider, A.E. ; Cyrys, J. ; Bastian, S. ; Breitner-Busch, S. ; Peters, A.

Impact of ambient ultrafine particles on cause-specific mortality in three German cities

Lang, N.J. ; Schniering, J. ; Porras-Gonzalez, D.L. ; Yang, L. ; De Sadeleer, L.J. ; Jentzsch, R.C. ; Shitov, V.A. ; Zhou, S. ; Ansari, M. ; Agami, A. ; Mayr, C. ; Hooshiar Kashani, B. ; Chen, Y. ; Heumos, L. ; Pestoni, J. ; Molnar, E.S. ; Geeraerts, E. ; Anquetil, V. ; Saniere, L. ; Wögrath, M. ; Gerckens, M. ; Lehmann, M. ; Yildirim, A.Ö. ; Hatz, R.A. ; Kneidinger, N. ; Behr, J. ; Wuyts, W.A. ; Stoleriu, M.-G. ; Luecken, M. ; Theis, F.J. ; Burgstaller, G. ; Schiller, H.

Ex vivo tissue perturbations coupled to single-cell RNA-seq reveal multilineage cell circuit dynamics in human lung fibrogenesis

Ni, W. ; Nikolaou, N. ; Ward-Caviness, C. ; Breitner-Busch, S. ; Wolf, K. ; Zhang, S. ; Wilson, R. ; Waldenberger, M. ; Peters, A. ; Schneider, A.E.

Associations between medium- and long-term exposure to air temperature and epigenetic age acceleration

Sikkema, L. ; […] ; Schniering, J. ; […]; Kapellos, T. ; […]; Schiller, H. ; […]; Luecken, M. ; Theis, F.J.

An integrated cell atlas of the lung in health and disease

Kamal, N. ; Tsardakas Renhuldt, N. ; Bentzer, J. ; Gundlach, H. ; Haberer, G. ; Juhász, A. ; Lux, T. ; Bose, U. ; Tye-Din, J.A. ; Lang, D. ; van Gessel, N. ; Reski, R. ; Fu, Y.B. ; Spégel, P. ; Ceplitis, A. ; Himmelbach, A. ; Waters, A.J. ; Bekele, W.A. ; Colgrave, M.L. ; Hansson, M. ; Stein, N. ; Mayer, K.F.X. ; Jellen, E.N. ; Maughan, P.J. ; Tinker, N.A. ; Mascher, M. ; Olsson, O. ; Spannagl, M. ; Sirijovski, N.

The mosaic oat genome gives insights into a uniquely healthy cereal crop

Luecken, M. ; Büttner, M. ; Chaichoompu, K. ; Danese, A. ; Interlandi, M. ; Müller, M. ; Strobl, D.C. ; Zappia, L. ; Dugas, M. ; Colomé-Tatché, M. ; Theis, F.J.

Benchmarking atlas-level data integration in single-cell genomics

Lotfollahi, M. ; Naghipourfar, M. ; Luecken, M. ; Khajavi, M. ; Büttner, M. ; Wagenstetter, M. ; Avsec, Z. ; Gayoso, A. ; Yosef, N. ; Interlandi, M. ; Rybakov, S. ; Misharin, A.V. ; Theis, F.J.

Mapping single-cell data to reference atlases by transfer learning

Gerckens, M. ; Schorpp, K.K. ; Pelizza, F. ; Wögrath, M. ; Reichau, K. ; Ma, H. ; Dworsky, A.-M. ; Sengupta, A. ; Stoleriu, M.-G. ; Heinzelmann, K. ; Merl-Pham, J. ; Irmler, M. ; Alsafadi, H.N. ; Trenkenschuh, E. ; Sarnova, L. ; Jirouskova, M. ; Frieß, W. ; Hauck, S.M. ; Beckers, J. ; Kneidinger, N. ; Behr, J. ; Hilgendorff, A. ; Hadian, K. ; Lindner, M. ; Königshoff, M. ; Eickelberg, O. ; Gregor, M. ; Plettenburg, O. ; Yildirim, A.Ö. ; Burgstaller, G.

Phenotypic drug screening in a human fibrosis model identified a novel class of antifibrotic therapeutics

Zhang, S. ; Mwiberi, S. ; Pickford, R. ; Breitner-Busch, S. ; Huth, C. ; Koenig, W. ; Rathmann, W. ; Herder, C. ; Roden, M. ; Cyrys, J. ; Peters, A. ; Wolf, K. ; Schneider, A.E.

Longitudinal associations between ambient air pollution and insulin sensitivity: Results from the KORA cohort study

Peters, A. ; Nawrot, T.S. ; Baccarelli, A.A.

Hallmarks of environmental insults

Muus, C. ; Luecken, M. ; […] ; Conlon, T.M. ; […] ; Ziegler, C.G.K.

Single-cell meta-analysis of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes across tissues and demographics

Conlon, T.M. ; John-Schuster, G. ; Heide, D. ; Pfister, D. ; Lehmann, M. ; Hu, Y. ; Ertüz, Z. ; López, M.A. ; Ansari, M. ; Strunz, M. ; Mayr, C. ; Ciminieri, C. ; Costa, R. ; Kohlhepp, M.S. ; Guillot, A. ; Güneş, G. ; Jeridi, A. ; Funk, M.C. ; Beroshvili, G. ; Prokosch, S. ; Hetzer, J. ; Verleden, S.E. ; Alsafadi, H.N. ; Lindner, M. ; Burgstaller, G. ; Becker, L. ; Irmler, M. ; Dudek, M. ; Janzen, J. ; Goffin, E. ; Gosens, R. ; Knolle, P. ; Pirotte, B. ; Stöger, T. ; Beckers, J. ; Wagner, D.E. ; Singh, I. ; Theis, F.J. ; Hrabě de Angelis, M. ; O’Connor, T. ; Tacke, F. ; Boutros, M. ; Dejardin, E. ; Eickelberg, O. ; Schiller, H. B. ; Königshoff, M. ; Heikenwalder, M. ; Yildirim, A.Ö.

Inhibition of LTβR signalling activates WNT-induced regeneration in lung

Haberer, G. ; Kamal, N. ; Bauer, E. ; Gundlach, H. ; Fischer, I. ; Seidel, M. ; Spannagl, M. ; Marcon, C. ; Ruban, A. ; Urbany, C. ; Nemri, A. ; Hochholdinger, F. ; Ouzunova, M. ; Houben, A. ; Schön, C.C. ; Mayer, K.F.X.

European maize genomes highlight intraspecies variation in repeat and gene content

Jayakodi, M. ; Padmarasu, S. ; Haberer, G. ; Bonthala, V. ; Gundlach, H. ; Monat, C. ; Lux, T. ; Kamal, N. ; Lang, D. ; […]; Mayer, K.F.X. ; Spannagl, M. ; Li, C. ; Mascher, M. ; Stein, N.

The barley pan-genome reveals the hidden legacy of mutation breeding

Stein, M.M. ; Hrusch, C.L. ; Gozdz, J. ; Igartua, C. ; Pivniouk, V. ; Murray, S.E. ; Ledford, J.G. ; Marques Dos Santos, M. ; Anderson, R.L. ; Metwali, N. ; Neilson, J.W. ; Maier, R.M. ; Gilbert, J.A. ; Holbreich, M. ; Thorne, P.S. ; Martinez, F.D. ; von Mutius, E. ; Vercelli, D. ; Ober, C. ; Sperling, A.I.

Innate Immunity and Asthma Risk in Amish and Hutterite Farm Children

Environmental Health Center

On This Page

Research Highlights

Heat – When Temperature Impacts Health

One Health: Climate Change Triggers Common Diseases

New Hope regarding lung diseases

The Farm Effect

Staple Foods Defy Climate Change

Scientists

Institutes

Research Unit of Molecular Epidemiology (AME)

Institute of Allergy Research (IAF)/ Center for Allergy & Environment (ZAUM)

Institute of Asthma and Allergy Prevention (IAP)

Institute of Environmental Medicine (IEM)

Institute of Lung Health and Immunity (LHI)

Institute of Epidemiology (EPI)

Research Unit Environmental Simulation (EUS)

Research Unit Plant Genome and Systems Biology (PGSB)

Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry (BGC)

Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analyses (COMI)

Research Unit for Precision Regenerative Medicine (PRM)

Unit Global Health (UGH)

News

Rethinking Early Detection: Type 1 Diabetes in Young Adults

Helmholtz Munich Secures Funding to Investigate Early-Stage Type 1 Diabetes in Adults

Farm Dust Could Hold the Key to Preventing Asthma

More Than Waste: Photorespiration Shapes the Plant Epigenome

Mental Health During the Pandemic: NAKO Shows Increased Burden

Selected Publications

Networks and Affiliations

The German National Cohort (NAKO)

The German Center for Lung Research (DZL)

LMU, Munich University

Technical University Munich

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

United States Environmental Protection Agency

Contact

Environmental Health and Lung Research School

A structured translational training and education platform to ultimately raise future leaders in environmental health medicine and science