Andreas Birkenfeld

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

+49 7071-2982735 andreas.birkenfeld@med.uni-tuebingen.de Website

“My vision is a life without type 2 diabetes (T2D). To even come close to that goal, we need to address T2D at a much earlier stage than is currently done in medical care. I aim to understand how T2D is caused and how to prevent, precisely and sustainably treat and reverse the disease.”

After his clinical training at the Charité-Berlin with Friedrich Luft and Jens Jordan, Andreas became a fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and joined Gerald I. Shulman at Yale University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, were he studied the origins of insulin resistance. He then received a DFG funded research group at the Charité-Berlin in 2010, and was appointed “Hans A. Krebs Professor of Therapy & Pathophysiology of Diabetes” in 2014.

He moved on to the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus of the Technical University Dresden to become the Professor of Metabolic Vascular Medicine and Chair of the Dept. of Metabolic Vascular Medicine. Andreas also became “TransCampus Professor” within the Section of Diabetology at King’s College London, UK.

In 2019, Andreas was appointed Medical Director and Chairman of the Department of Diabetology, Endocrinology and Nephrology at the University Hospital Tübingen as well as Director of the Institute of Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases (IDM), Helmholtz Munich. He serves as one of five speakers of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD).

Andreas clinical and basic research intends to reverse the pathophysiology of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. He derives his experience from working with patients with metabolic diseases as a clinician. He identified a hormonal heart – adipose tissue axis regulating human metabolism (ANP), as well as the plasma membrane transporter INDY (I’m Not Dead Yet) as a regulator of lipid and glucose metabolism.

He currently works to bring these strategies to patients to treat diabetes. Andreas lead large international multicenter trials evaluating novel treatment options for diabetes and obesity which are now in clinical use (Semaglutide). He seeks to better understand which factors drive remission of (pre)diabetes in his patients.

Diabetology Endocrinology Translational Research (Molecular -, Cell based -, Clinical Studies)

“We developed the longevity Gene INDY (I’m Not Dead, Yet) from fruitflies to mammals to human research for the treatment of diabetes, fatty liver and obesity.”

2019

2015

2014-2019

Ferdinand Bertram Award, German Diabetes Association (DDG) 2015
Schoeller-Junkmann-Award, German Society of Endocrinology (DGE) 2014
“Rising Star” Award, European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2011
Award of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for European Fellows 2010

Gallwitz, B. ; Aberle, J. ; Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Kellerer, M. ; Klein, H.H. ; Landgraf, R. ; Müller-Wieland, D. ; Müssig, K. ; Nauck, M.A. ; Siegel, E. ; Szendrödi, J. ; Wiesner, T.

Therapie des Typ-2-Diabetes.

Marx-Schütt, K. ; Forst, T. ; Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Zirlik, A. ; Müller-Wieland, D. ; Marx, N.

Diabetes mellitus und Herz.

Parhofer, K.G. ; Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Krone, W. ; Lehrke, M. ; Marx, N. ; Merkel, M. ; Marx-Schütt, K. ; Zirlik, A. ; Müller-Wieland, D.

Lipidtherapie bei Patienten mit Diabetes mellitus.

Narayan, K.M.V. ; Global Diabetes Forum (2024) (Birkenfeld, A.L.)

Copenhagen Declaration: A transformative vision for global diabetes.

Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Perreault, L. ; Schmidt, M.I. ; Schwarz, P.E.H. ; Zoungas, S. ; Gong, Q. ; Chan, J.C.N. ; Mohan, V. ; Tuomilehto, J. ; Bergman, M.

Defining prediabetes remission as a distinct prevention endpoint.

Vazquez Arreola, E. ; Gong, Q. ; Hanson, R.L. ; Wang, J. ; Sandforth, L. ; He, S. ; Sandforth, A. ; Qian, X. ; Giacca, M. ; Bornstein, S.R. ; Fritsche, A. ; Stefan, N. ; Preissl, H. ; Gregg, E.W. ; Marx, N. ; Jumpertz von Schwartzenberg, R. ; Li, G. ; Birkenfeld, A.L.

Prediabetes remission and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality: Post-hoc analyses from the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcome study and the DaQing Diabetes Prevention Outcome study.

Wang, Y. ; Ram, J. ; Bianchi, C. ; Fiorentino, T.V. ; Kim, S.S. ; Kim, J. ; Ryang, S. ; Del Prato, S. ; Sesti, G. ; Sandforth, L. ; Preissl, H. ; Jumpertz von Schwartzenberg, R. ; Stefan, N. ; Fritsche, A. ; Ha, J. ; Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Bergman, M.

Superiority of 1 h plasma glucose vs fasting plasma glucose, 2 h plasma glucose and HbA_1c for the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Mann, J.F.E. ; Marx, N. ; Deanfield, J.E. ; Emerson, S.S. ; Inzucchi, S.E. ; McGuire, D.K. ; Mulvagh, S.L. ; Pop-Busui, R. ; Poulter, N.R. ; Engelmann, M.D.M. ; Hovingh, G.K. ; Belmar, N. ; Idorn, T. ; Jeppesen, O.K. ; Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Amod, A. ; Mankovsky, B. ; Desouza, C. ; Gorgojo-Martinez, J.J. ; Arechavaleta, R. ; Tu, S.T. ; Buse, J.B.

Impact of oral semaglutide on kidney outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes: Results from the SOUL randomized trial.

Sehgal, R. ; Haacke, N. ; Maguolo, A. ; Solari, F.A. ; Jähnert, M. ; Gottmann, P. ; Nilsson, E. ; Vaag, A. ; Fischer-Posovszky, P. ; Werberger, A. ; Birkenfeld, A.L. ; Fritsche, A. ; Häring, H.-U. ; Sickmann, A. ; Vogel, H. ; Ling, C. ; Ouni, M. ; Schürmann, A.

Adipose tissue-derived microRNAs as epigenetic modulators of type 2 diabetes.

Wang, Y. ; Sandforth, A. ; Jumpertz von Schwartzenberg, R. ; Ganslmeier, M. ; Cheng, Y. ; Sandforth, L. ; Katzenstein, S. ; Machann, J. ; Schick, F. ; Kantartzis, K. ; Preissl, H. ; Fritsche, A. ; Stefan, N. ; Bergman, M. ; Birkenfeld, A.L.

Lifestyle intervention is more effective in high 1-hour post-load glucose than in prediabetes for restoring β-cell function, reducing ectopic fat, and preventing type 2 diabetes.