Maike Sander elected member of EMBO
Prof. Dr. Maike Sander, Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center
Professor Maike Sander, Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center and Vice President of Helmholtz Health, has been elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) – one of the largest molecular biology organizations in Europe. She is one of 69 new EMBO Members and Associate Members who have been selected this year for their outstanding achievements in the life sciences.
EMBO members are nominated and elected by existing members. Among other tasks, members guide and support EMBO activities. They evaluate funding applications, serve on EMBO Council and committees, or join the editorial boards of EMBO Press journals. Members also help shape the direction of life science research, support early-career scientists, and strengthen research communities.
“It’s an honor to join the EMBO community, whose members have shaped breakthroughs in the life sciences. I look forward to contributing to the EMBO mission and advancing research that improves human health,” says Sander.
The new members will be formally welcomed at the next EMBO Members’ Meeting in Heidelberg, Germany, on 22-24 October 2025.
Leading the charge against diabetes
Sander’s research has focused on uncovering the molecular mechanisms that govern how insulin producing beta cells form and function. Her aim is to develop novel therapies to treat diabetes.
Beta cells are located inside islets, cell clusters in the pancreas that house several different types of hormone-secreting cells. She and her team have developed approaches to grow islet cell organoids from human pluripotent stem cells, which they use to study why beta cells become dysfunctional in diabetes. They modify the organoids to mimic different conditions and use single-cell genomics and other tools to chart the molecular signals that cue cells to produce insulin – and to understand what disrupts this process in disease.
Her lab recently developed an organoid model of stem cell-derived pancreatic islets with integrated vasculature, which more closely resembles the native environment of beta cells in the human body. Further research aims to improve this model even more. By using microfluidic chips to expose organoids to immune cells, she aims to better understand how immune cells destroy beta cells in Type 1 diabetes. Uncovering how beta cells are
destroyed in Type 1 diabetes – and why they stop making insulin in Type 2 diabetes – she hopes will lead to better diabetes treatments.
- About Maike Sander
Professor Maike Sander is Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center and Vice President of Helmholtz Health. She is an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. She is a recipient of the Grodsky Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award, and the 2022 Albert Renold Prize by the European Society for the Study of Diabetes.
