Julia Bornhorst studied food chemistry at the University of Münster, Germany, where she also did her PhD from 2009-2012, in the group of Prof. Dr. Tanja Schwerdtle, working on “Manganese induced neurotoxicity”. From 2012 to 2013 Julia worked as an independent postdoctoral researcher in the research group of Prof. Dr. Michael Aschner, Department of Pediatrics and Toxicology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, USA, financed by a fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG). During this time, she further established her own research profile especially in the field of alternative animal toxicity testing by establishing new testing strategies for C. elegans. Since then Julia herself established many fruitful collaborations with international groups in the field of genotoxicity, DNA damage response, DNA repair as well as new approaches in testing strategies for contaminants. After her postdoc, Julia went back to Münster to Tanja Schwerdtle, but soon established her own working group. After moving to the University of Potsdam with Tanja Schwerdtle in January 2014, Julia became a senior lecturer in her department. Since January 2019, despite still being within the age limit of an early career award, she is Professor in Food Chemistry at the University of Wuppertal, Germany.
Julia has been a GUM/EEMGS member since 2009, regularly attending and actively participating in their conferences. In addition, Julia is currently the secretary of GUM (since 2015). Among others, she was a local organizer of the EEMGS 2017 in Potsdam. She receiving the GUM Young Scientist Award in 2013, and her work was also well recognized by other scientific societies, resulting in the Young Toxicologist Merck Award of the German Society of Toxicology (GT) in March 2016.
To date Julia has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and 4 book chapters, and she has made important contributions to the field of alternative animal toxicity testing, especially by establishing new testing strategies for C. elegans, and she is a well-recognized international expert in the field of manganese toxicology.