Philipp Zimmer

Prof. Philipp Zimmer studied sports science at the German Sport University Cologne (GSUC) and neuroscience at the University of Cologne from 2004 to 2012. He earned a Dr. rer. medic. (PhD) from the University of Cologne in 2014 and a Dr. Sportwiss. (PhD) from GSUC in 2015, followed by his habilitation in “Biomedical Sports Science” at GSUC in 2019.
Throughout his career, he has held various academic and research positions. After completing his PhDs, he served as a postdoctoral researcher at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (2016–2019) and became Principal Investigator of the “Clinical Sports (Neuro-) Immunology” group at GSUC. In 2020 he became Assistant Professor of “Performance and Health” at TU Dortmund University in 2020, and was appointed Full Professor of “Sports Medicine” at TU Dortmund University in 2021.
Since 2022, he has been the Director of the Institute of Sport and Sport Science at TU Dortmund University. His research focuses on the impact of acute physical exercise and training on (neuro-) immunological adaptations in healthy individuals, athletes, and patients, particularly those with multiple sclerosis and cancer. One of his key research areas is tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine pathway.