Claudia Langenberg (born 1972) is a German epidemiologist and medical specialist who researches and works in the field of

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

. She has been a professor of computational medicine at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) since 2020. Claudia is the Director of PHURI and the former programme Leader at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge and is a public health specialist combining her expertise with research focused on molecular epidemiology. Her work integrates large-scale genomic and metabolomic data to discover, prioritise and characterize metabolic pathways and test their causal relevance and specificity across a range of diseases, uncovering genetic influences on thousands of molecules in the blood, using this knowledge to better understand human disease such as type 2 diabetes.

Life and career

Claudia Langenberg studied medicine in

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

. After her clinical training and work in Germany, she moved to England for her Master's and PhD in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

at the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public university, public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London that specialises in public hea ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and completed her specialist training in Public Health in 2016. Langenberg was also involved in setting up international consortia such as MAGIC (Meta-Analysis of Glucose and Insulin related traits Consortium) and COMETS (Consortium of Metabolomics Studies). She was chief editor of the 2016 report ''Generation Genome'' by the UK Chief Medical Officer. In 2017, Langenberg took over as Program Director of Molecular Epidemiology at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where she was previously involved in discovering the genetic basis of metabolic diseases and

risk factor In epidemiology, a risk factor or determinant is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. Due to a lack of harmonization across disciplines, determinant, in its more widely accepted scientific meaning, is often use ...

s. Prof Langenberg is the Director of Precision Healthcare University Research Institute PHURI at Queen Mary University London. PHURI aims to drive a new era of personalised healthcare from East London which addresses unmet health needs and improves lives locally and globally.

Research focus

The focus of Langenberg's research is on the discovery of genetic influences on so-called 'omic' data, specifically on

metabolite In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...

s circulating in human blood. Her research group integrates data on these metabolites from large-scale population and clinical studies. This is used to characterize the genetic makeup of the human metabolism and its influence on health and disease, such as

type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent ...

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

, and

insulin resistance Insulin resistance (IR) is a pathological response in which cells in insulin-sensitive tissues in the body fail to respond normally to the hormone insulin or downregulate insulin receptors in response to hyperinsulinemia. Insulin is a horm ...

Awards

* Helmholtz International Fellow Award, 9 July 2018 * In recognition of Langenberg's achievements as a scientist and researcher, an exhibition plaque was dedicated to her as part of the exhibition "Berlin – Capital of Women Scientists" on the occasion of ''Wissensstadt Berlin 2021''. • In 2018 Claudia received the Helmholtz International Fellow Award and is named in the top 20 scientists in the UK for 2022, 2023, and 2024

External links

Publications of Claudia Langenberg
at

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

Claudia Langenberg
at the Berlin Institute of Health website
Claudia Langenberg
at the University of Cambridge

References

{{Authority control 1972 births 21st-century physicians 20th-century German physicians German epidemiologists Living people