The hormone and metabolism expert has already held this position on an interim basis since last year and succeeds Prof. Joachim Spranger, who took over as Dean at the Charité at the beginning of 2023.
From diabetes to high blood pressure and thyroid diseases to cancer: Endocrinology deals with a wide range of diseases. What they have in common is their being under the influence of hormonal processes in the body. Many of them are rare diseases, i.e. they affect no more than one in 2,000 people. This makes their diagnosis and treatment a particular challenge.
The interlocking focus on endocrinology, metabolism and rare diseases is reflected in the functions that Knut Mai holds in addition to clinic management: He will continue to head the Endocrinology & Metabolism department at the Labor Berlin – Charité Vivantes GmbH, the adults team at the Berlin Center for Rare Diseases (BCSE) and the Berlin study site of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD). He is also head of the Department of Human Nutrition at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE).
Personalized cancer therapies and nutrition plans
Knut Mai is working towards being able to offer patients with endocrinological diseases new treatment approaches that are increasingly tailored to their individual needs. “The key to this goal is innovative diagnostics and good interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaboration,” says the physician. For example, in the field of rare endocrine tumors: “With the help of new molecular pathological diagnostic methods and imaging techniques and in close collaboration with partners inside and outside the Charité, we want to develop more personalized diagnostic and therapeutic concepts for people with tumors of the adrenal gland, pituitary gland or thyroid gland.”
Patients with diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases should also benefit from more individualized treatment in the future. To this end, Knut Mai is researching which lifestyle and nutritional concepts are most promising for which patients. “The extent of the effects of a change in diet varies greatly from person to person,” he explains. “With my research, I want to identify factors that can predict how well individual persons are able to change their diet with an obvious effect. Based on these findings, we want to develop personalized nutritional strategies. In this process, the adaptation of the metabolism to changes in diet, lifestyle and body weight plays a very important role. We want to use multiomics, i.e. the detailed analysis of gene activity and metabolism, for example, to better understand this partially tissue-specific adaptation.”
What is the perspective of those affected?
In line with Berlin University Medicine's “Rethinking Health – Charité 2030” strategy, the new Clinic Director wants to focus even more on the patient's perspective in future. To this end, patients from various outpatient areas were given a tablet about a year ago with standardized questions to find out how they assess their own state of health during and after treatment. Such questionnaires are called “Patient Reported Outcome Measures” (PROMs). Knut Mai plans to gradually expand the PROMs to other outpatient areas of the Endocrinology Clinic.
The endocrinologist is also Chairman of the PJ Commission, which is responsible for organizing the medical practical year (PJ) for students at the end of their academic training. As regards his goals in the area of teaching, he says: “I am particularly keen to further develop clinical training based on evidence and in close collaboration with students. I find it also important to teach interprofessional collaboration and interdisciplinary treatment strategies as early as during the academic studies and to incorporate scientific aspects even more intensively. During their final practical year, students should feel well looked after and at the same time have the opportunity to work in patient care in order to prepare them for independent work as a doctor.”
Short vita
Knut Mai studied human medicine at the Charité and received his doctorate there in 2007 at the Department of Nuclear Medicine. From 2011, he worked first as a senior physician and later as a senior consultant in the Medical Clinic specializing in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolic medicine, where he headed both the university outpatient clinic for endocrinology and metabolism and the clinical-translational research unit. He received his State doctorate (habilitation) and teaching license (Facultas Docendi) in 2012 for his work on the endocrine effects of fatty acids in complex metabolic diseases. The specialist in internal medicine (2009), endocrinology (2014) and diabetology (2015) held the endowed professorship for diabetes development and therapy at the Charité from 2017 to 2022, funded by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. Since 2023, he has been Acting Director of the Medical Clinic for Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine at the Charité. He has received several awards for his work, including the Menarini Prize from the German Diabetes Society.
About the Medical Clinic for Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine
The Medical Clinic for Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine (including the Lipid Metabolism department) specializes in the following diseases: Overweight and obesity, high blood pressure, type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, lipid metabolism disorders, thyroid disorders, bone metabolism disorders (e.g. osteoporosis), malignant endocrine tumors and diseases of the pituitary gland and adrenal glands. In addition, patients with rare endocrine diseases, rare metabolic disorders and patients with general internal diseases are also cared for. The close link to basic and clinical research within the clinic ensures that the most current therapies can be offered.