Dr. Melanie Schirmer is a TUM Junior Fellow and an Emmy Noether group leader for Computational Microbiome research at the ZIEL – Institute for Food and Health. She studies interactions of hormones and the microbiome and their importance in female health.
ERC Starting Grant: HEROINE - Hormone-microbiome interactions as a key-player in
female health
Incidence rates of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases are increasing dramatically and are often higher in women. Hormones are hypothesized to play a central role in this sex bias. At the same time, the microbes that live in and on our body, the so-called human microbiome, are often linked to disease pathology. Microbes are capable of producing hormone-like signals, can metabolize hormones and regulate their production, while hormones can influence bacterial growth. However, a key understudied aspect is the interplay between hormones and microbes in the human body and the role of these interactions in human health and disease.
In her project HEROINE, Dr. Melanie Schirmer will investigate hormone-microbiome interactions as a key player in female health, including their role in infertility and the possibility of using microbiome-based therapeutic strategies to treat these disorders.
More information:
Editing:
Susanne Neumann
TUM School of Life Sciences
Press and Public Relations