Professor Michael Roden, board member of the German Diabetes Center (DDZ) – Leibniz Institute for Diabetes Research, director of the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology at Düsseldorf University Hospital and board member of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V), has received the highest distinction of  the German Diabetes Association, the 2017 Paul Langerhans Medal. With the medal named after the German pathologist Paul Langerhans, the German Diabetes Association has been honoring top international researchers in diabetology for more than 40 years.

Roden received the award in Hamburg at the 2017 Diabetes Congress, the annual scientific conference of the German Diabetes Association (DDG) with some 6,000 participants. “I feel deeply honored to receive this award, since I share it in a long tradition with renowned colleagues,” said Professor Michael Roden, board member of the DDZ. In his lecture, Roden showed how using new methods, disturbances of human energy metabolism can be visualized. These findings will also help to elucidate the course of complications of diabetes such as fatty liver disease. In the long term, as head of the German Diabetes Study, he hopes to be able to give patients answers on how to avoid diabetes sequelae.

Brief biography:
Roden studied at the University of Vienna and wrote his post-doctoral thesis (Habilitation) on the "modulation of hepatic insulin sensitivity". After a research stay as Max Kade Fellow at Yale University, USA, he returned to Vienna, where from 2004 on he headed the 1st Medical Department and was study coordinator of the teaching hospital of the Medical University of Vienna at the Hanusch Hospital. He was also director of the Karl Landsteiner Institute for Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. In 2008 he accepted a position in Düsseldorf as W3 professor at the University of Düsseldorf and took on the role of speaker of the board of the DDZ. Since 2009, he has also been a board member of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.). He has contributed his experience in diabetes and endocrinology as member of numerous national and international committees. He is chairman of the Medical Committee of the German Council of Science and Humanities and was one of the coordinators of the European guideline IMAGE for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and the EASL-EASD-EASO guideline on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

His research areas include the energy metabolism of healthy people, and in particular of patients with diabetes mellitus and obesity. His groundbreaking results on the effects of fat infusions and fat storage in muscle tissue have contributed significantly to the elucidation of fat-induced insulin resistance in humans. In recent years, his work has focused on the function of mitochondria in muscle and liver tissue, and his group contributed new methods of non-invasive measurement by means of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. His latest research has shown that mitochondrial function significantly influences the course of diabetes complications such as NAFLD.

Last but not least, he is the head of the German Diabetes Study (GDS), a multicenter prospective study by the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.) on diabetes mellitus and its sequelae. For his outstanding publications on human metabolism and pathophysiology, Roden has received important international awards such as the International Novartis Award for Innovative Patient-Oriented Research, the ESCI Award and the Oskar Minkowski Prize of the EASD. He also holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Athens and Belgrade.


The German Diabetes Center (DDZ) understands itself as the German reference center for diabetes. It aims to contribute to the improvement of prevention, early detection, diagnosis and therapy of diabetes mellitus. At the same time the objective is to improve the epidemiological data situation in Germany. The DDZ is responsible for the multi-center German Diabetes Study. It is a contact for health care providers, prepares scientific information on diabetes mellitus and makes it available to the public. The DDZ is a member of the Leibniz Association (WGL) and is a partner in the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.).

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For more information, please contact:
Christina A. Becker
Pressesprecherin
Deutsches Diabetes-Zentrum (DDZ)
Leibniz-Zentrum für Diabetes-Forschung
an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Tel.: 0211-3382-450
E-Mail: Christina.Becker(at)ddz.uni-duesseldorf.de