Great expertise in food allergies

Enriches teaching in the food chemistry courses with a highly topical subject area: Prof. Dr. Thomas Holzhauser is a new honorary professor at JLU

23-Jul-2024
DasFotostudio Caleb Ridgeway

Prof. Dr. Thomas Holzhauser

If the consumption of certain foods leads to skin reactions, breathing problems, nausea or diarrhea, a food allergy may be the cause. Around four percent of people in Germany suffer from this and cannot tolerate eggs, dairy products, peanuts, nuts, soy or shellfish, for example, because their immune system reacts excessively to the proteins they contain. Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) now has special expertise in this field: food chemist Prof. Dr. Thomas Holzhauser, Senior Scientific Advisor and research group leader at the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) in Langen, has been awarded an honorary professorship at JLU.

"Prof. Holzhauser is one of the internationally renowned food allergy researchers," said Prof. Dr. Holger Zorn, Dean of Faculty 08 - Biology and Chemistry at JLU. "He is an extremely valuable addition to the teaching and research at our department in the highly topical field of food allergies and molecular biological and biochemical analysis methods." Prof. Holzhauser works at the Institute of Food Chemistry and Food Biotechnology at JLU, where he completed his habilitation in food chemistry in 2017.

His research and teaching activities focus on molecular allergology and allergen analysis of food and pharmaceuticals. With his practical, translational and analytical expertise, Prof. Holzhauser complements the teaching on the Bachelor's and Master's degree courses in Food Chemistry at JLU. Students deal with food, its ingredients and composition, as well as changes to food - for example due to environmental influences, preparation, production processes and storage. The chemistry and analysis of cosmetics, consumer goods and animal feed are also part of the food chemistry course.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Holzhauser, born in 1969, comes from Munich and studied food chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin and chemistry at the University of Kent in Canterbury. The graduate and state-certified food chemist then conducted research at the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) in Langen on the development of new analytical methods for the detection of allergens in food and was awarded his doctorate at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in 2000. After three years as a project manager in the biotechnological in-vitro diagnostics industry, he returned to the Allergology Department of the PEI in 2003, where he has since held various positions as a research and working group leader as well as head of department in the quality assessment of biomedical drugs. In addition to his work at the PEI, he has also worked as a lecturer at the JLU.

Please note: Prof. Holzhauser will give his inaugural lecture on November 1, 2024 at 3 pm in lecture hall C2 (Heinrich-Buff-Ring 19, Giessen). All interested parties are cordially invited.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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