Henning Wackerhage

Prof. Henning Wackerhage is an Associate Professor of Sports Biology at the TUM School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich (TUM). His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of exercise, including how physical activity influences performance, fitness, and health. Key areas of investigation include the effects of exercise on thermogenic adipose tissue, blood metabolome/proteome dynamics, and Hippo pathway proteins' role in exercise adaptation. He also explores aerosol emission during exercise and its implications for infection risk.

Wackerhage holds a doctorate from the German Sport University in Cologne, where he studied muscle metabolism using ³¹P NMR. He previously held academic positions at the University of Central Lancashire, University of Dundee, and University of Aberdeen in Scotland. His current work integrates molecular biology, physiology, and clinical research to address questions at the intersection of exercise, cancer biology, and metabolic health.

Research interests include muscle hypertrophy's metabolic reprogramming, aerosol emission during exercise, and the Hippo/YAP pathway's role in muscle adaptation and disease. Notable projects involve analyzing exercise-conditioned sera effects on cancer cells and developing FAIR-compliant data standards for biomedical research.

Recent publications highlight his work on hypertrophy-induced metabolic shifts, aerosol particle emission dynamics, and the interplay between exercise and cancer cell behavior. His research group, Exercise Biology, emphasizes translational approaches to translate molecular insights into practical health and performance strategies.

Wackerhage's lab also investigates aging-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) and evidence-based training plans for athletic performance optimization. Collaborative efforts include systematic reviews of marathon training strategies and metabolomic profiling of elite athletes.