Name: Ellen Fritsche

My Area of Interest: Molecular Toxicology

My Favourite Quote: No risk, no fun.

I am a:Group Leader at the Environmental Health Research Institute

Short Profile:

Question and Answer Session:

What are your future goals? Where do you see your research going?:
My main future goal as a molecular toxicologist is to make significant contributions to public health. Therefore, I want to discover basic molecular mechanisms of exogenously-caused diseases with the ultimate goal of developing prevention strategies. My main focus thereby are the molecular mechanisms of aging.
Moreover, I am working on in vitro strategies to mimick human development. With such a testing system I want to identify chemicals harmful to human development. To be able to test substances in a three dimensional system, will eventually prevent harm.

Technologies seem to changing faster than ever, how do you adapt to that? What are the current technologies you are using?:
I am adapting new technologies in my lab. At the moment, we a performing microarrays, gene knockdown via si and viral sh RNA methods. We are employing human stem/progenitorcell techniques and are trying to use new mol. biol. methods in such cell systems. Moreover, we are now introducing miRNA in the lab.

In the broader picture, where do you see the application for your cutting-edge research?:
I see the application of my research especially in the field of molecular preventive medicine. By understanding which exposure is harmful for human health and what molecular pathways are involved in environmentally-caused diseases (like exogenous aging), society can be protected by preventive strategies on the molecular level.

Fast forward t o 2020. What’s your vision of Genomics in 2020?:
Complex, electronically readable Chip Arrays will be able to give us information about molecules being involved in pathways (miRNA, mRNA and new molecules which will be identified by then) by employing only one sample to the chip. Information getting out of such chips will be there instantly and much more interwoven into biology.