Dr. Voss studied biology at the University of Leipzig and completed her PhD at the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Fribourg, Switzerland. In her dissertation, she investigated the effects of cellulose nanocrystal aerosols on a triple-cell co-culture model of the human epithelial air-blood barrier. She then received a PostDoc Mobility Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to work at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in the field of stem cell research. Her goal was to study a rare form of childhood hypomyelination by differentiating patient-specific iPS cells into oligodendrocytes.

Since September 2017, she has been working as a senior scientist in Dr. Tobias Stöger's group at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, LHI. Here, she is researching the construction of the alveolar barrier in vitro from either primary cells, cell lines, or lung progenitor cells derived from iPS cells. These cell models help to decipher inflammatory processes caused by environmental factors in vitro, investigate genetic defects on the functionality of alveolar cells, and model the cellular dialogue in the alveolus in co-cultures in 2D and 3D. For her efforts in developing new methodological approaches to study the mechanisms of action of environmental particles on respiratory health, she was admitted to the DFG's Emmy Noether program.

In her funded project "OrganoidTox," she will now use so-called multi-omics approaches to identify cellular dysfunction and create an in vivo-anchored translational ToxAtlas, to contribute insights into the initiation of lung diseases by environmental factors. In Hannover she will work closely with the DZL research groups at LEBAO and Fraunhofer ITEM. "I am very excited to continue my research in this context. My husband and our two children have come with me to Hanover, and we are looking forward to the new environment and its possiblities. I am sure everyone will quickly feel at home here," Carola Voss is convinced.

Text: BREATH/ AZ / CV

Photo: Carola Voss