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Sarah Kim-Hellmuth
Johannes Hellmuth

Dr. med. Sarah Kim-Hellmuth

Group Leader Immunogenomics
+49 89 3187 48956VisitE-MailGebäude/Raum: 3533/218

Academic Career and Research Areas

Sarah Kim-Hellmuth received her MD from the LMU and TU Munich. She was trained as a postdoctorate fellow in immunology and underwent her specialist training as a Clinical Geneticist at the University of Bonn. Combining her research interests both in immunology and human genetics, Sarah pioneered the study of genetic effects on gene expression that influence the human immune response to pathogens. In 2015, she joined Tuuli Lappalainen at the New York Genome Center and Columbia University as a computational postdoctorate fellow. During her postdoc, Sarah was a lead analyst in the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Consortium focussing on the context-specificity (tissue-, cell type-, sex-specificity) of QTLs and how they elucidate the molecular mechanisms of genetic associations to complex diseases and traits.

Sarah is presently leading an Emmy Noether Research Group at the Institute of Translational Genomics at Helmholtz Munich and the Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital of the LMU, where she and her team study the genetic basis of human immune response variation and its effects on cellular functions linked to immune-related diseases.

Professional Background

Since 2022

Emmy Noether Research Group Leader

at the Institute of Translational Genomics, Helmholtz Munich and the Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, University Hospital LMU Munich

Since 2021

Group Leader Immunogenomics

at the Institute of Translational Genomics, Helmholtz Munich

Since 2020

Principal Investigator of Ped-COVID-19 study

at the Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, University Hospital LMU Munich, and Munich Child Health Alliance

2021

Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Leader

(This competitive award funded the first year of my group and was replaced by the more generous Emmy Noether programme)

2015 - 2019

Postdoctoral scientist

at the New York Genome Center and Columbia University, Lead analystof Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) consortium, and subgroup leader of the cell type composition analysis team

2011 - 2015

Research fellow

at the Institute of Human Genetics and Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Bonn

Guest researcher at Statistical Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry, Munich

2009 - 2011

MD thesis research fellow

at the Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Bonn

Honors and Awards

  • 2022 - Member of the Junge Akademie

  • 2022 - Friedmund Neumann Prize, Schering Stiftung

  • 2022 - Science Award for Basic Medical Research, GlaxoSmithKline Foundation

  • 2022 - Emmy Noether Programme, German Research Foundation

  • 2021 - Helmholtz Young Investigator Group

  • 2021 - Adalbert Czerny Award, German Society of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine

  • 2020 - Reinhard-Frank/Care-for-Rare Fellowship

  • 2017 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Global Fellowship, European Commission

  • 2017 - ASHG/Charles J. Epstein Trainee Award for Excellence in Human Genetics
    Research – Semifinalist

  • 2016 - Postdoctoral fellowship, German Research Foundation

  • 2016 - Dissertation Award, Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft

Variante: Gold Star Awards Luxury Background
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Publications

See all

2020 Science

Kim-Hellmuth, S.*, Aguet, F.*, Oliva, M., Muñoz-Aguirre, M., Kasela, S., Wucher, V., Castel, S. E., Hamel, A. R., Viñuela, A., Roberts, A. L., Mangul, S., Wen, X., Wang, G., Barbeira, A. N., Garrido-Martin, D., Nadel, B., Zou, Y., Bonazzola, R., Quan, J., Brown, A., Martinez-Perez, A., Soria, J. M., GTEx Consortium, Getz, G., Dermitzakis, E., Small, K. S., Stephens, M., Xi, H. S., Im, H. K., Guigó, R., Segre, A. V., Stranger, B. E., Ardlie, K. G. & Lappalainen, T. *contributed equally

Cell type-specific genetic regulation of gene expression across human tissues

2020 Science

Oliva, M.*, Muñoz-Aguirre, M.*, Kim-Hellmuth, S.*, Wucher, V., Gewirtz, A., Cotter, D., Parsana, P., Kasela, S., Balliu, B., Viñuela, A., Castel, S. E., Mohammadi, P., Aguet, F., Zou, Y., Khramtsova, E., Skol, A., Garrido-Martin, D., Reverter, F., Brown, A., Evans, P., Gamazon, E., Payne, A., Bonazzola, R., Barbeira, A. N., Hamel, A. R., Martinez-Perez, A., Soria, J. M., GTEx Consortium, Pierce, B., Stephens, M., Eskin, E., Dermitzakis, E., Segre, A. V., Im, H. K., Engelhardt, B., Ardlie, K. G., Montegomery, S., Battle, A., Lappalainen, T., Guigó, R. & Stranger, B. E. *contributed equally

The impact of sex on gene expression across human tissues

Affiliations