Deputy Director of the Research Unit Signaling and Translation / Group Leader Cell Signaling and Chemical Biology / Head Compound Screening Platform
Dr. rer. nat. Kamyar Hadian
“My research is dedicated to investigating the intricate mechanisms of metabolic cell death and ubiquitin signaling, with the ultimate goal of translating these biological insights into novel therapeutics through a tailored drug discovery pipeline.”
Career
Kamyar Hadian completed his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Virology and subsequently did his postdoctoral work in cell signaling at Helmholtz Munich. He established his research group in 2010 and was granted tenure in 2015. Subsequently, he conducted a collaborative research sabbatical at Columbia University, NYC from 2016 to 2017 to establish his research on ferroptosis. In 2022, he was appointed Director of the Compound Screening Platform, and in 2023, he became Deputy Director of the Research Unit Signaling & Translation at Helmholtz Munich.
His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of regulated cell death, specifically ferroptosis. His lab has identified key metabolic regulators of this process, including the finding that GTP Cyclohydrolase 1 counteracts ferroptosis (ACS Central Science 2020). More recent studies from his group have demonstrated that bile acids suppress lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis via farnesoid X receptor activation (Nature Communications 2023), and Vitamin A is essential for preventing ferroptosis during neuronal development (Nature Communications 2024). His lab aslo established that seratrodast can be repuposed to block ferroptosis in vivo (Cell Death Disease 2024).
Kamyar’s work bridges basic cell biology with translational discovery. His team developed first-in-class TRAF6-Ubc13 inhibitors for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (JBC 2018), a project recognized with the BioM m4 Award. He is also leading a preclinical program developing in vivo active ferroptosis inhibitors. Moreover, he oversees drug screening infrastructure and campaings at the Compound Screening Platform to support the identification of new therapeutic molecules.
Current projects focus on the metabolic regulation of ferroptosis, particularly how nuclear receptors sense metabolites and nutrients to regulate ferroptosis. He recently became a Principal Investigator at the Collaborative Research Center TRR387 as well as the Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC-M) at the German Center for Lung Research (DZL).
Skills and Expertise
Cell Death Ferroptosis Ubiquitin Signaling Metabolism Nuclear Receptors Chemical Biology Drug Discovery High-Content Screening Cell Signaling
Facts and Figures
Principal Investigator, Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC-M), DZL
Deputy Director, Research Unit Signaling & Translation, Helmholtz Munich
Group Leader, Research Group Cell Signaling & Chemical Biology, Helmholtz Munich
Director, Compound Screening Platform, Helmholtz Munich
Adjunct Associate Research Scientist (research sabbatical with Prof. Brent Stockwell’s Lab to establish a long-term collaboration), Columbia University, USA
Group Leader (tenured), Assay Development & Screening Platform, Helmholtz Munich
Junior Group Leader (tenure track), Assay Development & Screening Platform, Helmholtz Munich
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cellular Signal Integration, Helmholtz Munich
Honors and Awards
2026 Elected Member, “Molecular and Cell Biology” panel at Flanders Research Foundation (FWO)
2025 Editor, Journal “Ferroptosis and Oxidative Stress”
2025 Editor, Journal “EXO – Beyond the Cell”
2023 BioM m4-Award
2022 Elected Member, Scientific Advisory Board of ISIDORe Project by ERINHA
2016 Elected Member, Global Council of International Chemical Biology Society
2016 Journal of Biomolecular Screening ‘Reader’s Choice Award’ by SLAS
2013 ‘Research Award for Interdisciplinary Cooperation’ by VdFF
Patents
WO/2022/078602: Flavi-Block: a pan-flavivirus inhibitor (granted in EP)
WO/2019/180207: TRAF6 inhibitors (granted in US)
WO/2018/050286: TRAF6 inhibitors (granted in US, EP, AU, CN, JP)
WO/2017/097928: CPAP-Tubulin Module (granted in US, EP, CN, JP)
WO/2024/218322: Ferroptosis Inhibitors
WO/2022/129210: Inhibition of virus protease – PLpro from SARS-Cov-2
