Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Johannes Beckers, Executive MBA (TUM)

Understanding the conditions and mechanisms that allow us to reverse the epigenetic inheritance of acquired diabetes and obesity from one generation to the next is at the core of the research that is done in Johannes Beckers’ group. To address this question, he uses the mouse as model system for metabolic diseases in man. Studying of intergenerational inheritance, so far, requires organismal work that cannot be replaced by in vitro or in silico models. His finding that obesity and diabetes due to over-feeding impacts on the metabolic health of the progeny, has opened the very recent field of epigenetic intergenerational epigenetics. Johannes’ research is driven by the aim to understand how this inheritance contributes to the world-wide pandemic of diabetes and obesity and how it can be reversed by applying specific treatments.

Mammalian Genetics and EpigeneticsDiabetes and Metabolic DiseasesEmbryogenesis and Developmental BiologyAnimal Models and Animal Welfare in Research

Johannes joined Helmholtz Munich as group leader in 2000 and a few years later he also became Professor at the Technical University Munich. He teaches genetics and developmental biology of animals. Before he came to Helmholtz Munich, he was postdoc at the Jackson Laboratory where he worked on the Delta1 gene and its function during embryonic development in the group of Prof. Achim Gossler. He received his PhD in biology from the University of Geneva where he studied gene regulation in the HOXD complex in the institute of Prof. Denis Duboule. Before that he studied biology at the Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg and received his diploma for his work on the regulation of the human C-reactive protein in transgenic mice in the group of Prof. Ulrich Rüther at the EMBL Heidelberg.

Recently he also got a degree as Executive MBA in communication and leadership by the Technical University Munich. Communicating to the public about the conditions under which animal experiments are performed in research is of great concern for him. Knowledge we have from animals still changes our conception of the world and saves the lives of millions of people every year.