Student Research Projects

The Ecotox Centre offers students the possibility of serving internships or working on bachelor or master projects on practice-relevant topics from applied ecotoxicology for a duration of 3 to 6 months. Four jobs are available in Dübendorf and Lausanne for these projects. Currently possible topics are listed below. If you are interested, please send the following information and documents to Brigitte Bracken.

  • Date and duration
  • Preferred topic
  • CV
  • References


Possible Topics

Toxicity of UV filters to benthic organisms
Sunscreens most often contain UV filters that are made of organic chemicals. These substances can enter the aquatic environment when swimming or doing other nautical activities. Depending on their chemical properties, they can bind to suspended matter and accumulate in sediments where they persist for long time. Some of the UV filters are harmful to aquatic organisms. While the potential effects in corals and the marine ecosystem have been best studied, our knowledge on the potential effects in benthic organisms is scarce. This project intends to fill this knowledge gap. The project will be implemented at the Soil and Sediment Ecotoxicology group in Lausanne in collaboration with the Risk Assessment group in Dubendorf.

Contacts and more information: Carmen Casado (carmen.casado@centreecotox.ch) or Alexandra Kroll (alexandra.kroll@centreecotox.ch)

Further development  of HPTLC-bioassays and/or application to tire wear particles
Bioassays performed on thin-layer chromatography plates (HPTLC-bioassays) allow us to detect toxic chemicals after separating them from other chemicals. HPTLC-bioassays are recently developed tools so there are still questions about improving the chemical, biological, and data evaluation steps. There is also need to incorporate procedures to detect chemicals that would only be toxic after enzymatic activation. We use HPTLC-bioassays to investigate chemicals in tire wear particles. For example, we can follow known and unknown toxic chemicals leaching from tire particles to the environment under various conditions. Topics of a student research project would include further developing HPTLC-bioassays and/or applying them to tire wear particles.

Contact: Alan Bergmann (alan.bergmann@oekotoxzentrum.ch

Bachelor Project: Technical aspects of water analysis
At the Ecotox Centre several bioanalytical methods for the monitoring of water quality are applied. In these bioassays, either native water samples (without sample preparation) or concentrated water samples are tested for their toxicity. To improve the analysis, the following questions should be examined:
What is the best extraction method? Can we accumulate all toxic substances in a water sample with the same mechanism of action?
How long can chemical substances be detected in water samples?
Responsible for the project: Etiënne Vermeirssen (etienne.vermeirssen@oekotoxzentrum.ch)

Contact

Brigitte Bracken
Brigitte Bracken Send mail Tel. +41 58 765 5562