Bioanalytics
In natural waters, chemical pollutants do not act independently but often affect aquatic organisms in complex mixtures or in combination with other environmental stresses. These combinations of different stresses and chemicals strongly increase the complexity for toxicity tests and environmental risk assessment. For this reason we use accurate and informative chemical and bioanalytical tools (transcriptomics, proteomics), to address the complex interaction of chemicals and biological systems under different environmental conditions. The goal is a better understanding of the cellular stress response, for an improve model prediction of fate and effect of chemicals and other stressors, ultimately leading to better risk assessment.
Green Algae
The
photosynthetic model organisms Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is used to
study effects of environmental chemicals, nanoparticles, UV and predation alone and in combination. The main focus here lies on compounds that induce a
cellular oxidative stress by disturbing photosynthesis (e.g. herbicides), cause
direct photochemical reactions, or induce redox reactions (e.g. the metals Ag, Pb and Cd). In our predator prey experiments we use rotifers as predators.
Fish
We also study effects of (xeno)estrogens on fish from prealpine Swiss lakes. In the lab, the zebrafish Danio rerio serves as model system to study sexual determination, gonad development and malformations, and effects of glucocorticoid-like compounds. Our zebrafish research lead to the development of a sub-acute toxicity test based on freshly fertilized zebrafish eggs (MolDarT).
Current Projects
- Photo-oxidative stress [...]
- Multiple stressor effects [...]
- Metabolomics to assess oxidative stress in C reinhardtii [...]
- Estrogenicity of plankton from Lake Thun [...]
- Glucocorticoid-like effluent activity [...]
- MolDarT [...]
- Sexual
determination in zebrafish [...]