Prof Dirk Haller

Prof Dirk Haller

Full Professor
Chair of Nutrition and Immunology
ZIEL – Institute for Food & Health (Director)
Technical University of Munich
Germany

The main research focus of Prof. Haller and his team at the Chair of Nutrition and Immunology in Munich (@TUM) is to understand commensal microbe-host interactions in the digestive tract and to explore the question how diet and microbiome interactions influence health and chronic disease risk. The intestinal epithelium acts as a boundary with both metabolic and immunological functions and identifying the molecular communication between the microbial milieu and the host occupies a central position in Professor Haller’s research activities. His work with newly developed germ-free mouse models and patients with Crohn`s disease, ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer has made significant contributions to the role of commensal bacteria in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation, injury & regeneration and tumour development in the intestine. Prof. Haller established comprehensive research programs at the international (EU), national (DFG Priority Program, SPP 1656) and local level (DFG Collaborative Research Center, CRC 1371) and established the Institute for Food & Health (ZIEL) to implement these research question across scientific disciplines at TUM. Novel infrastructure and technology platforms, including microbiome-related next-generation sequencing (NGS) as well as gnotobiotic mouse housing, contribute to cutting-edge research at the interface of nutrition science and biomedicine. With more than 200 publications and awards from the European Gastroenterology Association and the German Society of Medical Microbiology underlines his international recognition in translational biomedical research.