Lisbeth E. Knudsen

CV

Professor PhD Lisbeth E. Knudsen (LEK)

2006 -
Current position: Professor in Animal free toxicology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen

Previous positions

2000 - 2006: Associate Professor in Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen

1998 - 1999: Preclinical Assessor, Danish Medicines Agency

1984 - 1997: Senior Researcher, Danish National Institute of Occupational Health

1982 - 1984: Toxicologist, Danish Labour Inspection Service

1980 - 1982: Toxicologist, Danish Environmental Protection Agency

 Education

1993: Phd in Biomedicine, Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Copenhagen

1980: Master in Toxicological Biochemistry, Faculty og Natural Sciences
University of Copenhagen

Awards and Prizes

LEK was National member of the Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) for the European Centre for the validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) 2000-2009; The EU implementation group on biomonitoring 2003-2012; Member of Danish Consensus Platform for 3R Alternatives to Animal Experimentation (DACOPA) from 2003-2013; Member of the board of the Danish 3R Centre from 2013.

LEK received the Nordic Alternative Price 2006 for promoting development of alternatives to animal testing. LEK is the coordinator of the Danish in vitro toxicology network, past president in the European Consensus Platform for 3R Alternatives to Animal Experimentation (ECOPA) and past president of the European Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EEMGS).

Leadership and Training of Young Scientists

During the past 10 years I have attracted substantial funding and initiated independent research projects within areas of placental transport and human biomonitoring. I have participated as partner in BIOMED and FP4-FP7 EU programmes and was coordinator of the European network on children’s susceptibility and exposure to environmental genotoxicants: Childrengenonetwork 2003-2005 (QLK4-CT-2002-02198). In FP-6, I was active partner in ReProTect developing alternatives to animal testing and the project NewGeneris with the establishment of mother/newborn biobanks for human biomonitoring. I also participated in the coordination team of COPHES (COnsortium to Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale) with focus on horizontal activities in FP7 and was national contact point of DEMOCOPHES (DEMOnstration of COPHES) LIFE+09 ENV/BE00410. Currently I participate in BRIDGE-Health (BRidging Information and Data Generation for Evidence-based Health Policy and Research) HP-PJ-2014- 664691, and the Human Biomonitoring Initiative for EU (HBM4EU) with special tasks related to ethics. I also participate in the network ‘Environmental & Public Health Tracking to Advance Knowledge for Planetary Health’ (Behrod et al.) and an international network (PlaNet) to evaluate a human placental testing platform for chemicals safety testing in pregnancy (Brownbill et al. 2016).

As head of the in vitro toxicology group at the department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, from 2006, I have supervised 3 postdocs, 6 PhD students and many master and bachelor students in health disciplines. All persons graduating from my group are now in very good positions at universities or in the environmental health sector.

Teaching Activities

As course leader or contributor, I teach toxicology, environmental epidemiology at many bachelor and master courses in the health disciplines (medicine, pharmacy, public health) and supervise many students with their theses. I have participated in several international courses, most recently the Brno summer school in environmental chemistry, May 2016.

Organisation of Scientific Meetings

2016: Organiser of the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EEMGS – as president) and The European Concensus Platform of Alternatives(ECOPA as vice president), Copenhagen, 14-18 August.

2013: Organiser of Workshop, Scandinavian Society for Cell Toxicology (SSCT), 25-27 September.

2010 - : Organiser of national meetings related to 3R in animal sciences with international participation.

2007: Organiser of Workshop on ethics and communication, Copenhagen.

Institutional Responsibilities

2016 - : Faculty Member, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen

2008 - 2013: Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen

2003 - 2016: Study director, Bachelor and Master of Sciences in Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen (not from 2008-2013).

Commissions of Trust

2016: Chair of the Human Ethics Committee for the HEALTH and SCIENCE faculties, University of Copenhagen

2016: SWETOX, Scientific Advisory Board

2015: Review Board, Swedish Council of Sciences

2013: Scientific Advisory Board, Danish 3R Centre

2010: Editorial Board, Basic Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (BCPT)

2009: Scientific Advisory Board, Pesticides, Danish EPA

1990: Reviewer, DG Research and ERC (mainly ethics)

Major Collaborations

Professor Milan Ščasný: Consumer behavior and interventions, valuation of health benefits – Environment Centre, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.

Scientific Advisor Alexandra Fucic: Establishment of birth cohorts – Institute of Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia.

Director Marike Kolossa Gehring: Coordinator of HBM4EU – German Environment Agency, Berlin, Germany.

Assistant Professor Katrin Vorkamp: Analytical chemistry related to HBM, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Professor Lars Gunnarsen,  og senior reseracher Helle Vibeke Andersen - Human eksposure to PCB in Buildings, Danish Building Research Institute

Senior researcher Marie Frederiksen, Human eksposure to PCB in Buildings, Danish National Reserach Center for Working Environment

Professors Klaus Høyer and Aaro Mikael Tupasela: Ethics and empowerment – Dept of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Mette Hartlev: Legal aspects of personalised information and biobanks (Hartlev 2015) - Centre for Legal Studies in Welfare and Market, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Paul Brownbill: Access to cord blood and maternal exposure information – University of Manchester, UK.

TREALIV by Susanne Nørmark is a SME offering HBM, advice and follow-up on lifestyle changes: www.trealiv.com

Primary fields of research

Study director of bachelor and master of science studies in Public Health Sciences at the Faculty of Health and Medicine.

Current research

Research

Toxicology, genotoxicology, biomonitoring of environmental and occupational exposures and early effects, ethical aspects of genetic testing, susceptibility markers and susceptible groups, Alternatives to animal studies
 
Projects

European Human Biomonitoring Initiative -HBM4EU - Horizon2020 program contract No 733032. Linked Third Party via NRCWE focusing on ethics and the national hub contact point

Human Eksposure to PCB in buildings. HBM projekt with National Research Center on Building and the National Ress earch Center on Working Environment

BRIDGE-Health (BRidging information and Data Generation) for Evidence-based Health Policy and Research) aims to create European health information (EU-HI) and data generation networks covering major EU health policy areas. Project no.: 664691. 2015 -

Pesticidmålinger i urin - etablering af analysemetode og analyse af urinprøver fra danske mødre og børn indsamlet som en del af DEMOCOPHES projektet. KOntrakt opgave for Miljøstyrelsen koordineret af SDU og i samarbejde med VITO, Belgien

Review of the state of the art of human biomonitoring for chemical subtances and its application to human exposure assessment for food safety. EFSA contract by BiPro 2014

Human exposure to novel flame retardants from materials to humans (NO FLAME). DFF post doc bevilling til Marie Frederiksen, Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut, Aalborg Universitet

COPHES: (COnsortium to Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale) FP7 2009-2013, half of the expenses for sampling and analysis nationally to be covered by DEMOCOPHES  EU Life+ and further funding from the ministries of Health, Food and environment each contributing with 1/6^th of the expenses (2009-2013).

Endocrine disruption by pesticides. Research financed by the Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Fund (2009-2013).

Toxicology in vitro in Denmark: Danish Network in vitro toxicology and alternative methods (2008-2011).

Nanotest Development of methodology for alternative testing strategies for the assessment of the toxicological profile of nanoparticles used in medical diagnostics. A Collaborative Project. Small or medium-scale focused research project, under FP7 (2008-2011).

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - fetal and neonatal exposure. Project in collaboration with the National Environmental Institute and partly financed by the Danish Medical Research Council (2007-2009).

NEWGENERIS Newborns and genotoxic exposure risks: Development and application of biomarkers of dietary exposure to genotoxic and immunotoxic chemicals and of biomarkers of early effects, using mother-child birth cohorts and bio banks (EU Integrated Project). LEK is partner with placenta perfusion, samples for biomarker analysis and ethics. (2006-2011).

ESBIO Expert team to Support BIO monitoring specific support action to support a pilot project with biomonitoring in EU www.eu-humanbiomonitoring.org (2005-2007).

Placental transport of pesticides. Research financed by the Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Fund (2006-2008).

ReProTect: Development of a novel approach in hazard and risk assessment of reproductive toxicity by combination and application of in vitro, tissue and sensor technology. EU Integrated Project. (2004-2009). LEK was partner no 32 with placenta perfusion, biomonitoring and ethics. ecvam.jrc.it/ft_doc/ReProTect%20summary_final.pdf

Teaching

PhD supervision

Tina Mose: development and optimization of an ex-vivo human placental perfusion system – Placental transfer of chemical compounds. 2009.

Marie Frederiksen: Human exposure to polybrominated dephenyl ethers. An exposure study of pregnant women and their un- and newborn children. 2010.

Marie Pedersen: Transplacental exposure to environmental pollutants. Biomarkers of exposures and effects in blood from mother-newborn pairs. 2010.

Mia B. Kjærstad: Potential endocrine disturbance of fetal development by azole compounds used as antifungals in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals – a study on placental transport and effects on steroid receptors and steroid metabolizing enzymes. 2011.

Line Mathiesen: Active transport across human placenta. Defence 25.8.2011.

Thit Aarøe Mørck: Exposures to environmental toxicants amongst schoolchildren and their mothers. From December 2010.

Caroline Pehrsson Placental malaria, free fetal haemoglobin and preeclampsia in collaboration with Thor Theander, Peter Damm and Stefan Hansson. 2016.