News

Award for Young DZD Scientist

Dr. Natalie Krahmer of the DZD partner Helmholtz Zentrum München has received a Future Leaders Award from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (ESFD) / Novo Nordisk Foundation at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).

Dr. Natalie Krahmer. Source: Simon Hettenkofer

The young scientist will receive approximately 672,000 euros (a total of five million Danish kroner) over the next five years for her research on leptin signaling. 

Leptin is a metabolic hormone produced by fat cells. If the fat cells release leptin, it is transported to the brain via the blood. If there is an abundance of leptin in the blood, the brain signals the body that it does not need any more food for the time being. In overweight people this regulation no longer works.

Since January 2019, Krahmer has headed an Emmy Noether Young Investigator Group at Helmholtz Zentrum München funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). By combining proteomics and cell biology, she and her team are seeking to elucidate the changes in the subcellular organization in the development of metabolic diseases and in particular in non-alcoholic fatty liver (hepatic steatosis).