The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina with its 1,600 members is representing German science in international committees and provides science-based advice for politics and society. Its members are outstanding research personalities with excellent scientific achievements.

Martin Hrabě de Angelis explores genes in mice and humans that play a role in the metabolism and development of diabetes. He is the co-founder of the German Centre for Diabetes Research, which aims to develop new prevention approaches and therapies, and of which he is a board member. He established the German Mouse Clinic at Helmholtz Zentrum München where animal models are used to investigate the influence of genes and the environment on health and disease. With this systematic approach, he succeeded in uncovering causal relationships for metabolic disorders that are relevant for mice and humans. Hrabě de Angelis and his research partners were also able to show for the first time that dietary obesity and diabetes can be passed on to the next generation beyond the generational borders.

Since 2000, Martin Hrabě de Angelis has been director of the Institute for Experimental Genetics at Helmholtz Zentrum München and was appointed Chair of Experimental Genetics at Technische Universität München in 2003.

He has contributed significantly to the networking of scientific infrastructures in genetics and has promoted the establishment of national and international research consortia. Since 2008 he coordinates the European research network "Infrafrontier". The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), which is developing the first functional encyclopedia of the mammalian genome, is based on the systemic phenotyping of disease models introduced by the German Mouse Clinic.

Martin Hrabě de Angelis has received honorary doctorates from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, the Technical University Dresden and the University Leipzig for his services to scientific collaborations and joint publications in the field of diabetes research.