Juliane Winkelmann

Juliane Winkelmann is Director of the Institute of Neurogenomics at Helmholtz Munich and holds the Chair of Human Genetics at Technical University Munich. Previously, she was Professor of Neuroscience at Stanford University in California, USA. She is a specialist in neurology and human genetics and conducts research on the genetic basis of common and rare diseases.

The research of Juliane Winkelmann focuses on the genetic architecture and underlying molecular mechanisms of complex genetic neurological disorders as well as rare diseases with a special focus on movement and sleep disorders.

Winkelmann and her team have made primary discoveries of genetic variants for common neurological disorders including Restless Leg Syndrome and Dystonia. Her research is laying the groundwork for personalized medicine. Through an understanding of genetic predisposition to disease, her aim is to be able to prevent disease in individuals and provide superior diagnostic information, paving the way for therapies tailored to the individual patient.

Winkelmann studied medicine at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, and at LMU Munich. Her doctoral research was conducted at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. She was Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Stanford University in California before being appointed Chair of Neurogenetics at TUM in 2015. Since 2023 she holds the Chair of Human Genetics at TUM.

Her goal is to apply digital health to routine diagnostics by combining genomic medicine and advanced AI methods. She is a member of key genomic data networks such as the German Human Genome Archive (GHGA) and genom.DE.

She has received international awards for her genomics discoveries, including the RLS collaboration award of the International RLS Study group, the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the American Sleep Research Society and a Life Science Award from the American Academy of Neurology. She is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.