Elisabeth Varga Honored with GÖCH Award

The award recognised a publication by Elisabeth Varga and her colleagues in the scientific journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. The study focuses on the detection of prymnesins, toxic compounds produced by the microalga Prymnesium parvum. This species of algae can cause large-scale fish kills, as occurred in the Oder River in Poland and Germany in the summer of 2022.

The research team compared existing detection methods and developed an improved sample-preparation procedure. It enables the reliable and faster identification of all three known prymnesin types, including in saline algal cultures. The method eliminates several time-consuming steps and also allows the samples to be subsequently used for toxicity studies.

The research was carried out as part of Magdalena Pöchhacker’s doctoral thesis and Alexander Conrad’s master’s thesis. Vetmeduni and the Institute of Food Chemistry and Toxicology at the University of Vienna were involved in the project, which received financial support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Vetmeduni extends its warmest congratulations!