Gunda Herberth

Dr. Gunda Herberth is a Scientist and Platform Coordinator of Cohorts at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, where she serves as Principal Investigator (PI) of the LINA study (LINA – Impact of prenatal lifestyle factors and environmental exposure on newborns allergy risk) and the LISA cohort study. She has held leadership positions including Deputy Head of the Department of Environmental Immunology (2020-2023) and Acting Head of the Department (2018-2020). Her research focuses on environmental immunology, particularly how environmental exposures modulate immune responses and contribute to allergic diseases.

Dr. Herberth's research interests center on the influence of environmental exposures on immune responses and allergic disease development, with specific focus on the regulation of immune cell activity by environmental contaminants, particularly regarding mucosal-associated invariant T cells (MAIT cells). She investigates how disturbed T cell function affects health outcomes through prospective birth cohort studies. Her work bridges environmental science, immunology, and epidemiology to understand the developmental origins of health and disease.

Her publication record demonstrates consistent productivity with numerous high-impact papers focusing on environmental immunology, epigenetics, and birth cohort studies. Her recent work shows increasing emphasis on chemical mixtures, microbiome-immune interactions, and epigenetic mechanisms linking environmental exposures to health outcomes. She frequently collaborates within large international consortia, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of her research.

Dr. Herberth leads the research group 'Environmental immune cell regulation' at the UFZ Department of Environmental Immunology and Core Facility Studies. She has coordinated blood sampling and analysis of immune parameters in prospective birth cohort studies since 2004, building expertise in longitudinal study design and immune monitoring. Her work contributes significantly to understanding how environmental factors shape immune development and disease risk from early life.