In this episode I speak with Prof. Kathrin Fenner, one of the leading academic scientists in the study of chemical biodegradation and environmental persistence.

Kathrin and I have a far-reaching conversation covering her background and research interests, challenges and developments in chemical biodegradation research, and implications for policy and society. 

We have learned an enormous amount about the fate and persistence of chemicals in recent years, and the work of Kathrin and her group has been at the heart of this. 

Listen to the episode to find out about biodegradation of chemicals in different environmental settings, what factors contribute to persistence, understanding transformation products and pathways, predicting biodegradation for different chemicals and scenarios, and how we can utilise this knowledge toward safer and more sustainable use of chemicals. 

Works cited:

Innovate beyond PFAS | Science

Designing Small Molecules for Biodegradability | Chemical Reviews

Bridging across OECD 308 and 309 Data in Search of a Robust Biotransformation Indicator | Environmental Science & Technology

Developing a weight-of-evidence methodology for persistence assessment of substances in the environment | Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management

Breaking it down: Unveiling the roles of chemical structure, concentrations and technology on micropollutant biotransformation in wastewater treatment plants – ScienceDirect

High-Throughput Miniaturized Biotransformation Testing Using Activated Sludge Enables Rapid Chemical Persistence Assessment | Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Read-Across of Biotransformation Potential between Activated Sludge and the Terrestrial Environment: Toward Making It Practical and Plausible | Environmental Science & Technology

Modernizing persistence–bioaccumulation–toxicity (PBT) assessment with high throughput animal-free methods | Archives of Toxicology | Springer Nature Link

Do biotransformation data from laboratory experiments reflect micropollutant degradation in a large river basin? – ScienceDirect

Eawag-Soil in enviPath: a new resource for exploring regulatory pesticide soil biodegradation pathways and half-life data – Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts

FAIR and Effective Communication of Data on Chemical Contaminant Biotransformation in the Environment | Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Confidently uncertain: Probabilistic machine learning to predict soil biotransformation half-lives | ChemRxiv

Predicting Micropollutant Removal in Wastewater Treatment Based on Molecular Structure: Benchmark Data and Models | Environmental Science & Technology

Discover enviPath.org

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