After studying human medicine at the University of Hamburg, Professor Hoyer continued his education in psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, and internal medicine at the Universities of Homburg/Saar, Munich and Heidelberg, where his interests and the direction of his future work were defined. In 1980, he began to study the effect of age on oxidative brain metabolism, and since then, Professor Hoyer has been continuously developing notions which have become milestones in sporadic Alzheimer disease research. He was the first who pointed to a decreased glucose/energy metabolism in the brain as an important etiopathogenic factor of sporadic Alzheimer disease, and his pioneering work on associated alterations of neuronal insulin receptor signaling has paved a new way in basic research. Realizing the limits of post mortem human research and the need for experimental models of this disease, Professor Hoyer has been characterizing a rat model for more than 20 years, which, following the central application of streptozotocin, develops cognitive deficits and a number of Alzheimer-like neurochemical features including the insulin-resistant brain state. In 1998, his persistent visionary work put forward a hypothesis of sporadic Alzheimer disease being a brain type of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, which significantly influenced the research of other scientists in the field and initiated a new approach to the research of Alzheimer’s etiopathogenesis. Professor Hoyer’s contribution to basic Alzheimer disease research has been recognized worldwide and acknowledged by the Alzheimer’s Association, which awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
