Bernadette Mederer

Bernadette Mederer is a Researcher at the Department of Cell Toxicology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig. She joined the department in June 2024, focusing on environmental pollutants and their ecological impacts. Her work integrates machine learning and advanced bioassay technologies to address chemical regulation challenges.

Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Physical Geography (2017-2020), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
• Master’s in Ecotoxicology (2020-2023), Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU)

Research Interests: Bernadette specializes in risk assessment of environmental pollutants, applying machine learning (e.g., random forest algorithms) to predict ecological impacts on aquatic organisms. Her doctoral research, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Sinergia Project, evaluates antioxidant toxicity using high-throughput in-vitro bioassays to refine the European chemical regulation (REACH). Key areas include oxidative stress, genotoxicity, and adaptive stress responses.

Projects & Collaborations: She contributed to the EU-funded POLYRAS project (Interreg) on sustainable aquaculture systems and the MLinvitroTox tool development at Eawag. Her work bridges ecological modeling, toxicology, and regulatory science.

Presentations: Presented research at SETAC Europe 2025 in Vienna, focusing on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and chemical exposome assessments.

Labs/Teams: Part of the Cell Toxicology Team at UFZ and previously the Eußerthal Ecosystem Research Station (EERES) at RPTU.