Maria Rohm

biography

Maria was awarded a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2014, working in Professor Frances Ashcroft’s research group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics. This allowed Maria to pursue her research interests on the molecular basis of metabolic changes occurring in metabolic diseases. Using a multi-omics approach, Maria investigated the underlying metabolic changes of islet function during development and in the treatment of diabetes. Maria also studied the influence of hyperglycaemia/ hypoinsulinaemia on peripheral tissues like the kidney and heart.

Following her Novo Nordisk fellowship, Maria joined the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC) at Helmholtz Munich. She is now Head of the Division Tissue Crosstalk in Cancer Metabolism. Having received the prestigious ERC Starting Grant and Helmholtz Young Investigator Award, Maria investigates the intersection of lipid and glucose metabolism in cancer-associated metabolic dysfunction, with the aim to identify targetable disease mechanisms to counteract cachexia. She was awarded the Vincenz-Czerny prize for oncology for the discovery of ceramides as contributors to cachexia. She also continues to investigate novel drivers of islet malfunction in diabetes.

Diabetes causes marked inhibition of mitochondrial metabolism in pancreatic β-cells. Haythorne E*, Rohm M*, et al, (2019), Nat Comms * = joint first author

Cardiac dysfunction and metabolic inflexibility in a mouse model of diabetes without dyslipidaemia
Rohm M. et al, (2018), Diabetes

Adipose tissue: between the extremes
Vegiopoulos A. et al, (2017) EMBO J

Is type-2 diabetes a glycogen storage disease of pancreatic β-cells
Ashcroft FM, Rohm M, et al, (2017), Cell Metabolism

Hyperglycaemia induces metabolic dysfunction and glycogen accumulation in pancreatic β-cells
Brereton MF, Rohm M, et al, (2016), Nat Commun

β-Cell dysfunction in diabetes: a crisis of identity?
Brereton MF*, Rohm M*, Ashcroft FM, (2016), Diabetes Obes Metab * = joint first author