Lisbeth E. Knudsen

Lisbeth E. Knudsen

Professor

Professor PhD Lisbeth E. Knudsen (LEK)

2006 -
Current position: Professor in 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

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