Dr. Katharina Koch
IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine
For the majority of the chemicals in circulation, their developmental, neurotoxic and developmental neurotoxic potential is not known. There is an international consensus that new experimental approaches are required in order to obtain experimental data with adequate financial and time expenditure that enable regulatory decisions to protect human health. The Fritsche group develops in vitro methods that predict the potential hazard to the embryo, the developing and the adult nervous system. Both primary neural stem cells and hiPSC in 2D and 3D cultures, 'spheroids', are used for these methods. The methods are scientifically validated, species comparisons between humans and rodents are carried out and substances are tested with a medium-throughput pipetting and analysis platform. Bioinformatics analysis methods for complex cell models are established in collaboration with Prof. Mosig, Ruhr University Bochum.