Dr. Hermine Mohr

Hermine is a group leader at Helmholtz Munich, where she heads the research unit “Metabolic Cancer Reprogramming” within the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC). Her research focuses on understanding how metabolic processes in tumors and their microenvironment interact to drive disease progression.

Hermine studied Molecular Biotechnology at the Technical University of Munich, including a Master's thesis at the University of Toronto where she designed a novel yeast three-hybrid system coupling ligand recognition to gene activation — an early indication of her lasting interest in building signal-responsive biological tools. She completed her doctoral studies in Biochemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München with highest distinction, developing a fundamentally new class of infection-triggered gene expression systems and extending these into transgenic animal models. The cross-disciplinary expertise she developed spanning molecular engineering, virology, and in vivo biology remains a defining strength that she now directs toward understanding and targeting cancer.

During her postdoctoral work at Helmholtz Munich, Hermine developed and applied advanced preclinical models for neuroendocrine tumors, including the first patient-derived xenograft of metastatic paraganglioma, before establishing the Metabolic Cancer Reprogramming group at the Institute of Diabetes and Cancer in 2026.

 Her group investigates how metabolic programs, nutrient fluxes, and metabolite-driven signaling pathways determine cancer cell fate, adaptive states, and therapeutic vulnerability, with the aim of translating these mechanistic insights into strategies that overcome therapy resistance and improve patient outcomes. A particular strength of the group is the development of clinically relevant cancer models that capture tumor heterogeneity and enable precision oncology approaches. Her research is supported by the Collaborative Research Center TRR 205 and the German Cancer Aid, among others.

Hermine's work sits at the intersection of cancer metabolism, the tumor microenvironment, and epigenetic regulation, and she is committed to building the mechanistic foundation for metabolism-driven precision oncology.