HyperMet is a research group funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) that began its work on 01.03.2025. The HyperMet research is dedicated to understanding how skeletal muscle hypertrophy and atrophy influence metabolic health. Bringing together researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), TUM University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Helmholtz Munich, University Hospital Ulm, and Technische Universität Braunschweig, the consortium investigates metabolic mechanisms that link muscle mass to whole‑body physiology.

The central scientific premise of HyperMet is that skeletal muscle, the body’s largest organ system by mass, plays a decisive yet underappreciated role in systemic metabolism. Muscle hypertrophy appears to induce a metabolic reprogramming—including features of the Warburg effect—resulting in increased uptake of metabolic substrates such as glucose and amino acids (“metabolic hoover”). Conversely, muscle atrophy accelerates the release of metabolites into circulation (“metabolite flooding”), potentially contributing to insulin resistance, adipose tissue gain, bone loss, and adverse cancer‑related outcomes.To investigate these mechanisms, HyperMet applies advanced methods of metabolic research.

The aim of the HyperMet Research Unit is to uncover metabolic pathways that explain why muscle hypertrophy typically produces anti‑obesity, anti‑diabetes, anti‑osteoporosis, and potentially anti‑tumor effects, while muscle atrophy exerts the opposite influence. By integrating human studies, animal models, and cellular systems, the group seeks to identify metabolic mechanisms that operate across biological scales and species.

This research can help develop muscle-focused treatments and interventions for diseases such as obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and cancer, which affect billions of people.