Interview Kristin Schirmer

Prof. Dr. Kristin Schirmer is a biologist specialising in environmental toxicology and animal cell biology. Since 2008, she has led the Department of Environmental Toxicology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic (eqwetik) Science and Technology, better known as Eawag.

Kristin’s research focuses on how substances, like chemicals in water, interact with vertebrate cells. Among other things, her research aims to improve how we assess and control water quality.

For many years, she’s been committed to replacing toxicology tests that use real fish with animal-free in vitro methods, making a major contribution to the 3Rs principle – specifically, to replacements.

Over the decades, Kristin’s research has earned numerous awards.

One milestone worth highlighting is the RTgill-W1 cell line assay, which predicts acute fish toxicity in chemicals and water samples. This method was accepted as an official test guideline by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – a big step toward offering an alternative to the traditional acute fish toxicity test.

And just recently, Kristin and her team achieved another breakthrough: they developed an animal-free alternative to foetal bovine serum (FBS). This serum, widely used in cell research, was previously obtained through very harmful processes, so this innovation is a huge step forward.

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