AI in Health

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not limited to creating visuals or answering simple questions. It has the exceptional potential to improve human health: Advanced data analysis and machine learning methods developed by our experts are revolutionizing medical research, enabling early disease detection, personalized medicine, and improved patient outcomes. Helmholtz Munich is a leading organization in pioneering leading new ways to enhance people’s health by using AI.

On this page, you find selected news and projects related to AI in health at Helmholtz Munich. Discover what this future technology can achieve for human health!

What the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) will tell us about ourselves and how scientists at Helmholtz Munich are facilitating this revolutionizing global endeavor.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly crucial in medical research, and Helmholtz Munich is one of the world's leading institutions in this field. It can detect tumors as effectively as severe eye diseases.

Shot of corridor in working data center filled with rack servers and supercomputers AI background

Computer systems can already independently analyze health data, learn from it and even derive therapy recommendations. Which opportunities this means for patients and what research needs to apply artificial intelligence in practice.einzusetzen.

Doctor using ultrasound equipment screening of pregnant woman.

In the future, blood samples from patients can be evaluated not only by specialists, but also by artificial intelligence. A team from Helmholtz Munich is laying the foundations for this.

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed Nicheformer, the first large-scale foundation model that integrates single-cell analysis with spatial transcriptomics. Trained on more than 110 million cells,…

Helmholtz Munich had the pleasure to welcome Prof. Eric Topol, internationally recognized cardiologist, geneticist, and digital medicine expert, for a roundtable on the future of AI in healthcare. The event, serving as a prologue to the Bavarian…

Zeynep Akata receives 2025 ZukunftsWissen Award

Professor Zeynep Akata has been awarded the 2025 ZukunftsWissen Prize by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Commerzbank Foundation in recognition of her outstanding scientific contributions. The €50,000 award was presented on…

Helmholtz Munich and Parse Biosciences have entered into a collaboration to generate one of the most comprehensive lung disease perturbation atlases to date. The project uses a human lung ex vivo tissue slice culture model derived from both healthy…

Vierte Helmholtz Munich Expert Hour im Deutschen Bundestag

Science and politics came together once again at the German Bundestag: For the fourth time, Helmholtz Munich hosted the Helmholtz Munich Expert Hour on September 10, 2025. This dialogue format gives political decision-makers the opportunity to learn…

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Prof. Niki Kilbertus, Helmholtz AI group leader at Helmholtz Munich and professor at the Technical University of Munich, has received an ERC Starting Grant for the project DYNAMICAUS, which focuses on advancing the understanding of cause-and-effect…

Human lung model with a of disease, generative Ai

Helmholtz Munich and Boehringer Ingelheim have started a research collaboration to identify new avenues for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that could improve outcomes in people living with this severe and progressive lung disease.…

As of July 1, 2025, Prof. Carsten Marr has assumed the newly established W3 Professorship for Artificial Intelligence in Cell Therapy and Hematology at the Department of Medicine III of the LMU University Hospital. The professorship is part of a…

For the first time, the Helmholtz Munich Expert Hour – an established dialogue format between science and politics – took place at the Bavarian State Parliament. At the invitation of Member of Parliament Maximilian Böltl and the Young Group of the…

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich received the pre-seed competition m4 Award 2025 for their project SYNTRA, which develops new methods to deliver RNA-based medicines using artificial intelligence (AI). The award supports innovative medical research in…

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich have developed an artificial intelligence model that can simulate human behavior with remarkable accuracy. The language model, called Centaur, was trained on more than ten million decisions from psychological…

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Researchers from more than 50 international institutions have launched Open Problems (https://openproblems.bio) a collaborative open-source platform to benchmark, improve, and run competitions for computational methods in single-cell genomics. Co-led…

Helmholtz Munich has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Northwestern University’s (NU) Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago, USA), one of the highest performing research-oriented Medical Schools in the US, to collaborate on machine learning in…

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Helmholtz Munich, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and Parse Biosciences have announced a collaboration to develop a single cell atlas focused on cancer plasticity and its response to therapies. This initiative will lay the foundation for a larger…

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Large language models (LLMs) – the advanced AI behind tools like ChatGPT – are increasingly integrated into daily life, assisting with tasks such as writing emails, answering questions, and even supporting healthcare decisions. But can these models…

Helmholtz Munich has been awarded a prestigious grant from Breakthrough T1D, a leading global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization, to enhance the effectiveness of stem cell-derived islet transplantation for T1D. By integrating…

The appearance of gene therapy on the body's genetic map for cancer cells

Scientists at Helmholtz Munich, in collaboration with partners at the Roche’s Institute of Human Biology and ETH Zurich, have built detailed atlases of brain, gut, and lung organoids to empower future discovery.

Angioplasty Procedure: Stent Deployment in a Coronary Artery

A research team from Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the TUM University Hospital has developed DeepNeo, an AI-powered algorithm that automates the process of analyzing coronary stents after implantation. The tool…

A research team from Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich has developed an advanced delivery system that transports gene-editing tools based on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system into living cells with significantly greater…

Artificial intelligence enables precision medicine through advanced monitoring. Digital representation of cancer cells with glowing details and intricate patterns.AdobeStock_1094300434

The DECIPHER-M research project uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further understand the spread of cancer cells based on routine clinical data. The aim is to improve treatment options using a multimodal foundation model. As a key contributor,…

Ethics of AI in Healthcare: The use of AI in healthcare requires ethical guidelines to address bias, ensure transparency, and maintain patient trust in medical practices. AdobeStock_1055051906

A landmark consensus paper introducing the FUTURE-AI framework for trustworthy AI in healthcare has been published by a collaboration of leading institutions, in which Helmholtz Munich is also involved. This important work sets a new standard for…

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) has awarded Prof. Fabian Theis the ISCB Innovator Award, recognizing his outstanding contributions to computational biology. This accolade is presented annually to a leading scientist who,…

Machine learning is transforming the study of human health, offering deep insights into individual cell behavior. Building on existing knowledge that biases in machine learning can impact fairness and accuracy, a new study, led by Theresa Willem, AI…

Na Cai Early Excellence Science Award 2024

Dr. Na Cai, from the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus at Helmholtz Munich, has been honored with the 2024 Early Excellence in Science Award in Biology from the Bayer Foundation. She was recognized for her research in mental health genetics, particularly her…

To remain competitive in today's economy, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has become essential for companies across almost all industries. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large corporations face challenges that they can…

Stethoscope and Advanced AI Technology in Healthcare Innovation_AdobeStock_810682484

Two AI research projects at Helmholtz Munich have received prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept Grants. Dr. Carsten Marr’s LeukoBIAS and Dr. Janna Nawroth’s Ai4Cilia aim to address critical challenges in healthcare, from…

Our bodies are made up of around 37 trillion cells. But what function does each individual cell perform and how greatly do a healthy person’s cells differ from those of someone with a disease? To draw conclusions, enormous quantities of data must be…

Artistic representation of stages of human embryonic development emphasizing cell division differentiation organ formation - AdobeStock_917188904

Thanks to a new technology called Moscot (“Multi-Omics Single-Cell Optimal Transport”), researchers can now observe millions of cells simultaneously as they develop into a new organ—for example, a pancreas. This groundbreaking method was developed by…

How can we ensure that life-saving drugs or genetic therapies reach their intended target cells without causing harmful side effects? Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) and Technical University Munich (TUM) have…

Steffen Schneider from the Institute of Computational Biology at Helmholtz Munich has been named the "Early Career Scientist of the Year 2024" by academics. He received this honor for his outstanding research in artificial intelligence and…

Medicine is at the breaking point, but artificial intelligence can be a game changer. Our latest infographic reveals how artificial intelligence is already improving healthcare—and what the future of medicine could look like.
Download now to explore the potential of AI in medicine.

Grafik zu aktuellen Limitationen in der Medizin

How to Harness Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Dr. Steffen Schneider explains the opportunities that AI technologies like machine learning offer – especially when this know-how is taught as early as school. For example, AI can help…

An AI powered system automating remote patient monitoring by analyzing real time health data and vital signs, futuristic AI-driven healthcare platform

AI-powered foundation models like GPT have evolved from everyday tools for simple tasks to powerful systems capable of revolutionizing industries. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich are harnessing the potential of these models to drive advancements in…

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The integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) into scientific workflows is growing. Diverse groups of scientists reflect and engaged in debate on the question „How should the advent of large language models affect the practice of science?”

The project FUTURE-AI aims to bridge the gap between AI research and clinical adoption in healthcare. It provides guidelines for developing trustworthy AI tools, built on six guiding principles and 30 best practices.

Imagine a world where the most intricate networks and processes within whole bodies are visible – down to the level of individual molecules. This is what Ali Ertürk’s pioneering research makes possible, opening up new possibilities for medicine and…

Microscopic image of a brain organoid, cross section.

In a novel international study, researchers have created the Human Neural Organoid Cell Atlas (HNOCA). This atlas integrates 1.7 million single-cell transcriptomic profiles, offering a powerful tool for studying brain development, disease mechanisms,…

Prof. Zeynep Akata is selected as one of the leading "Top 40 Under 40". Read her compelling interview!

Interview with Prof. Matthias Tschöp about health research and prevention with cutting-edge tools.

In this interview, Dr. Vincent Fortuin explains their new approach for reliable AI.

In the future, blood samples from patients can be evaluated not only by specialists, but also by artificial intelligence. A team from Helmholtz Munich is laying the foundations for this.

Abstract human body with molecules DNA | Without Text

Computer scientists at Helmholtz Munich developed a generative model named scPoli (single-cell population level integration), that enables multi-scale representations of cells and samples. The model performs data integration of high-quality large-scale datasets of single cells to create valuable single-cell reference maps of the human body, so-called single-cell atlases, for medical research.

Can a human organ be mapped on a single-cell level to learn about the functionality of each individual cell? And can we learn how different these cells are from person to person? Researchers have taken up this challenge and developed the Human Lung Cell Atlas using artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques.

Unlike other forms of blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cannot currently be treated with CAR-T cell immunotherapy. The reason is that specific molecular targets with which certain immune cells could specifically target AML cells are lacking. Researchers have now succeeded in discovering such targets.

Predicted retinal thickness on funuds image

Researchers created a novel deep learning method that makes automated screenings for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy more efficient. Reducing the amount of expensive annotated image data that is required for the training of the algorithm, the method is attractive for clinics.

Researchers developed a novel artificial intelligence algorithm for clinical applications called “scArches”. It efficiently compares patients’ cells with a reference atlas of cells of healthy individuals. This enables physicians to pinpoint cells in disease and prioritize them for personalized treatment in each patient.

Researchers from Helmholtz Munich, Roche Diagnostics, and the Technical University of Munich have developed the most comprehensive single-cell atlas to date of human atherosclerotic plaques. These plaques, which form in the arteries and can lead to…

A research team at Helmholtz Munich and Helmholtz AI, led by Prof. Lara Urban, has demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to distinguish between living and dead microorganisms by analysing raw data signal from nanopore DNA…

A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool, HistoGPT, is set to transform the field of dermatopathology by automating the process of generating high-quality pathology reports from histology images. Developed by a multidisciplinary team led by Helmholtz…

A study led by Dr. Tingying Peng, Helmholtz AI PI at the Computational Health Center at Helmholtz Munich, and Dr. Melanie Boxberg from the TUM Department of Pathology has introduced a new technology aimed at improving how doctors analyze tissue…

A research team led by Dr. Malte Lücken from the Institute of Computational Biology (ICB) and the Institute of Lung Health & Immunity (LHI) at Helmholtz Munich has published a guide in Nature Methods on creating single-cell atlases—critical tools for…

A team led by Prof. Fabian Theis, Director of the Computational Health Center and the Institute of Computational Biology at Helmholtz Munich, has developed Spapros, a computational pipeline set to transform the design of spatial transcriptomics…

Lung diseases, including asthma and emphysema, often preferentially affect specific regions of the lung, highlighting the need for precise drug delivery to achieve effective treatment. A team led by Dr. Lin Yang and Dr. Otmar Schmid from the…

A team of researchers has unveiled Tumoroscope, a computational method that offers unprecedented insight into the spatial evolution of tumors and the intricate behaviors of cancer cell populations, known as clones. Published in Nature Communications,…

A study led by Lara Urban, Principal Investigator at Helmholtz AI and the Pioneer Campus at Helmholtz Munich and TUM Junior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has revealed a novel method for detecting hidden antibiotic resistance,…

Researchers around Prof. Fabian Theis from Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), have developed CellRank 2, a new tool that promises to transform the way scientists study cells. This new method significantly improves our…

For newcomers to the field of single-cell analysis as well as for experts, scientists led by Fabian Theis, Head of the Computational Health Center at Helmholtz Munich and Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), developed best practice…

The technological progress for single-cell research resulted in an increasing amount of data, accordingly big data has become one of the central parts in medical research. “Omics” technologies do not just rely on large scale molecular datasets but…

A team led by Helmholtz Munich scientist Dr. Grzegorz Popowicz unveils the Molecular Interactions Structurally Optimized (MISATO) dataset, offering a transformative approach to training AI models for designing new drug molecules. MISATO represents a…

Therapeutic antibodies play a crucial role in treating diseases by modifying immune cells. Scientists from the Institute of AI for Health at Helmholtz Munich in collaboration with Roche present an open-source framework for comprehensive antibody…

A collaborative endeavor between computer scientists and diabetes researchers at Helmholtz Munich has yielded novel insights into the mechanisms underlying type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of the first mouse…

Researchers from Helmholtz Munich have reached a significant milestone in precision medicine with their new publication on the 'Oncology Biomarker Discovery (OncoBird)' framework. This innovative approach aims to systematically identify actionable…

Human health is closely connected to the health of our environment. So far, the complex ways in which they influence each other are not fully understood. The concept of One Health recognizes this interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental…

Predicting the effects of drugs regarding dosage, timing, possible drug combinations and other types of intervention such as gene knockouts can be experimentally difficult and very time-consuming. Nonetheless, this is one of the most important tasks…

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On this page, you find selected news and projects related to AI in health at Helmholtz Munich. Discover what this future technology can achieve for human health!

New Foundation Model Reveals How Cells Are Organized in Tissues

Prof. Eric Topol Visits Helmholtz Munich for Roundtable on “Virtual Human”

Zeynep Akata Receives 2025 ZukunftsWissen Award

Helmholtz Munich and Parse Biosciences Collaborate on Human Lung Tissue Perturbation Atlas

Helmholtz Munich Expert Hour at the German Bundestag: The Future of Preventive Medicine

Niki Kilbertus Receives ERC Starting Grant for Causal Analysis in Complex Systems

New Collaboration to Advance Drug Discovery for Pulmonary Fibrosis

Carsten Marr Appointed to Professorship for Artificial Intelligence in Hematology and Cell Therapy

Helmholtz Munich Expert Hour at the State Parliament: Focus on AI Potential in Medicine

m4 Award 2025 Goes to Helmholtz Munich for RNA Therapy Innovation

AI That Thinks Like Us – and Could Help Explain How We Think

Open Problems: Cracking Cell Complexity with Collective Intelligence

Helmholtz Munich and Northwestern University Partner to Advance Machine Learning in Health

Cancer Plasticity Atlas To Improve Cancer Therapies

AI Meets Game Theory: How Language Models Perform in Human-Like Social Scenarios

Helmholtz Munich Receives Grant to Improve Stem Cell Islet Transplants for Type 1 Diabetes

Mapping the Future of Organoids

AI-Powered Analysis of Stent Healing

Engineering Smart Delivery for Gene Editors

Using Artificial Intelligence to Decipher the Mechanisms of Cancer Metastasis

International Experts Establish FUTURE-AI Guidelines for Trustworthy Healthcare AI

Fabian Theis Honored with ISCB Innovator Award

Addressing Bias in Machine Learning for Equitable Healthcare

Mental Health Research: Na Cai Wins Bayer Science Award

Helmholtz Invests 18 Million Euros in AI Innovation Ecosystems

AI in Healthcare: ERC PoC Grants Awarded to Carsten Marr and Janna Nawroth

A key to analyzing millions of individual cells

AI in Cell Research: Moscot Reveals Cell Dynamics in Unprecedented Detail

SCP-Nano: A New Technology to Visualize Nanocarriers in Cells and Tissues

Dr. Steffen Schneider Named Early Career Scientist of the Year 2024

Interview Steffen Schneider: Fit for AI

How Foundation Models Are Shaping Biomedical Research

Interview Marcel Binz: AI in Science - Ethical and Practical Challenges

Making AI in Healthcare Trustworthy - an Interview with Julia Schnabel

Ali Ertürk’s Journey in Transformative Biomedical Imaging

Understanding the Human Brain, One Cell at a Time

“Extending the Limits of Our Curiosity With the Help of Technological Tools.”

Modern Prevention of Health with AI and Bioengineering

Building Reliable AI

Using AI to Combat Diseases

AI Transforms Blood Disease Diagnosis

Interpreting Large-Scale Medical Datasets

First Integrated Single-Cell Atlas of the Human Lung

New targets for CAR-T cell therapy against acute myeloid leukemia through AI-assisted analysis

“I Can See It in Your Eyes”: Novel Deep Learning Method Enables Clinic-Ready Automated Screening for Diabetes-Related Eye Disease

AI Helps to Spot Single Diseased Cells

Integrated Single-Cell Atlas of Human Atherosclerotic Plaques

Using AI and DNA Signals to Detect Living Microbes

HistoGPT: Advancing AI-Powered Pathology Reporting in Dermatopathology

New AI Model Enhances Speed and Accuracy in Medical Diagnoses

Helmholtz Munich Researchers Publish Guide to Single-Cell Atlases

Advancing Tissue Mapping: Spapros Refines Spatial Transcriptomics for Biological Insights

LungVis 1.0: Precision Therapy for Lung Diseases with AI-Driven Imaging

Tumoroscope Technology Uncovers Cancer Clone Behavior

Detecting Hidden Antibiotic Resistance With Real-Time-Genomics

Advancing Single-Cell Analysis With CellRank 2

Single-Cell Analysis: Best Practice Guidelines

Open Source Consortium for Single-Cell Analysis

MISATO Dataset: Transforming Drug Discovery with AI

The Power of Machine Learning Unravels Immune System Interactions

Understanding Diabetes: Single-Cell Atlas Leverages Machine Learning to Decipher Diabetes at the Molecular Level

Computational Breakthrough in Precision Medicine for Cancer Treatment

Understanding the Connection Between Human and Environmental Health Using Real-Time Genomics

Computational Prediction of Single-Cell Perturbations