Diabetes

Our research at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) aims to understand the molecular bases underlying all forms of diabetes, its heterogeneity, and risk factors, including obesity, as well as its complications and comorbidities. We combine world-leading basic research with clinical intervention and cohort studies to develop tomorrow’s diabetes precision medicine.

Our research at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) aims to understand the molecular bases underlying all forms of diabetes, its heterogeneity and risk factors, including obesity, as well as its complications and comorbidities. We combine world-leading basic research with clinical intervention and cohort studies to develop tomorrow’s diabetes precision medicine.

Molecular model of insulin molecule, 3D illustration

We identify risk factors for diabetes in children and adults and its complications. Our world-class basic research enables us to define new biomarker for its development and progression and therapeutic targets.

Institut für Diabetesforschung Studienzentrum

We are leading in early detection and prevention of type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as development of innovative personalized therapies to combat diabetes and obesity.

3d rendering of Human cell or Embryonic stem cell microscope background.

We develop new venues for cell-based therapies, to reestablish a health metabolic function. We jointly work to identify the molecular basis of diabetes complications and means for their remission.

Diabetes in Children

Early detection tests for a world without type 1 diabetes

At Helmholtz Munich, scientists are working to ensure that no child will have to suffer from the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes in the future.

Networks

Our partnerships for a world without diabetes

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich are working toward a world without diabetes. They are not doing so alone, but with a network of organizations, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. Their goal is to use experts’ knowledge to create something new: innovative prevention and treatment of diabetes.

Panoramic teamwork business join hand together concept, Business team standing hands together, Volunteer charity work. People joining for cooperation success business.

Metabolism and Longevity

Longevity Treatments Do Not Slow Aging

Three approaches with a reputation for slowing aging processes have proven largely ineffective. For their study, researchers developed a new method to measure aging, which accounts for the complexity of aging in organisms.

freigestelltes Porträtbild für Kontakte auf der Website

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Hrabě De Angelis

Member and Spokesperson of the Executive Board (acting), Research Director Helmholtz Munich, Full Professor and Chair of Experimental Genetics Technical University Munich, Director of the Institute of Experimental Genetics Helmholtz Munich

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Prof. Dr. Stephan Herzig

Head of Diabetes Department and Head of Research Unit "Diabetes and Complications"

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Prof. Dr. Heiko Lickert

Director, Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research, IDR

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Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler

Institute Director, Chair of Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes, Klinikum rechts der Isar and Technical University of Munich, Director of the Global Platform for the Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes (GPPAD)

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Prof. Dr. Timo Müller

Institute Director, Head of Research Unit Molecular Pharmacology, IDO

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Prof. Dr. Michele Solimena

Director of the Institute for Pancreatic Islet Research, IPI

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Prof. Dr. Tor Henrik Semb

Director, Institute of Translational Stem Cell Research (ITS), Lund University Diabetes Centre Department of Clinical Sciences Clinical Research Centre Malmö, Sweden

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PI-/MA-Bilder Matthias Blüher_EH6A7638_Hintergrund freigestellt

Prof. Dr. Matthias Blüher

Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research and Head of Research Group Clinical Obesity Research

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Prof. Dr. Nina Henriette Uhlenhaut

Director of the Institute for Diabetes and Endocriology, IDE

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Prof. Dr. Paul Pfluger

Head of Research Unit NeuroBiology of Diabetes, NBD

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Prof. Dr. Andreas Birkenfeld

Director of the Institute of Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases (IDM) Helmholtz Munich at the University Hospital Tübingen

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Prof. Dr. Matthias Hebrok

Director, Institute for Diabetes and Organoid Technology, IDOT

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Dr. Siegfried Ussar

Director of Research Unit Adipocytes and Metabolism, ADM

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Prof. Carolin Daniel

Director of the Institute for Metabolism and Immunology, IMI

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Thanks to basic research, groundbreaking innovations against obesity as well as in the field of diabetes prevention and therapy are emerging at Helmholtz Munich.

Visit Campaign

Under the title “Obesity – can we tackle the Epidemic?”, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina invited to this year’s Leopoldina Collegium. At the two-day event, held October 9–10, journalists from all over Germany had the opportunity to…

13th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference 2026 | Day 1
Welcome to the Diabetes Conference 2026

From September 21–23, 2026, the 13th Helmholtz Munich Diabetes Conference brought together international experts and emerging researchers at the Helmholtz Munich Conference Center. Under this year's theme "Diabetes Across the Lifespan," the program…

Timo Müller, Director of the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity (IDO) at Helmholtz Munich and Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), has received the 2026 Gill Transformative Investigator Award. With this distinction, the Gill…

Our metabolism is not a static system. It is shaped even before birth, adapts throughout life to nutrition and the environment, and can also fall out of balance. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich are investigating how metabolic risks can be identified…

World Diabetes Awareness: Blue Ribbon, Sugar Cubes, and Globe on Blue Background.

An international team of experts has issued specific recommendations for population-wide screening of children for type 1 diabetes. The consensus paper, published in the journal Diabetologia, sets out when children should be tested and how a…

Gruppenbild im Treppenhaus des Roten Hausesv. l. n. r.:
Michael Stumvoll, Michael Frieser, Cristina Petersen, Bilal Sheikh, Matthias Blüher, Babett Gläser, Antje Körner, Ulrike Poller, Sarah Frenzel, Theda Wessel, Gefion Liebau, Angela Dargel, Konstanze Julich-Gruner

How can research help prevent obesity before disease develops? This question was a key focus during the visit by representatives from the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) and the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK) to…

Loft A, Schmidt SF, Caratti G, Stifel U, Havelund J, Sekar R, Kwon Y, Sulaj A, Chow KK, Alfaro AJ, Schwarzmayr T, Rittig N, Svart M, Tsokanos FF, Maida A, Blutke A, Feuchtinger A, Møller N, Blüher M, Nawroth P, Szendrödi J, Færgeman NJ, Zeigerer A, Tuckermann J, Herzig S.

A macrophage-hepatocyte glucocorticoid receptor axis coordinates fasting ketogenesis.

Karlina R, Flexeder C, Stephanie M, Bhattacharyya M, Schneider E, Altun I, Gschwendtner S, Neumann AU, Nano J, Schloter M, Peters A, Schulz H, Schmidt-Weber CB, Standl M, Traidl-Hoffmann C, Alessandrini F, Ussar S.

Differential effects of lung inflammation on insulin resistance in humans and mice.

Karl FM, Winkler C, Ziegler A-G, Laxy M, Achenbach P

Costs of Public Health Screening of Children for Presymptomatic Type 1 Diabetes in Bavaria, Germany.

Xu CS, Pang S, Shtengel G, Müller A, Ritter AT, Hoffman HK, Takemura SY, Lu Z, Pasolli HA, Iyer N, Chung J, Bennett D, Weigel AV, Freeman M, van Engelenburg SB, Walther TC, Farese RV Jr, Lippincott-Schwartz J, Mellman I, Solimena M, Hess HF.

An open-access volume electron microscopy atlas of whole cells and tissues.