News

2025 was another very active year for Dr. Brill Institutes, marked by inspiring encounters, intensive professional exchanges, joint activities, and social engagement. In addition to the many professional events in which we participated once again – such as our own 11th Conference of Applied Hygiene, Microbiology and Virology (CAHMV) – the focus was, of course, once again on people and partnership.

A particular highlight was our wonderful summer party, which took place together with colleagues and customers in the courtyard of our headquarters in Hamburg-Hummelsbüttel. Two milestones were celebrated at the same time: 30 years of Dr. Brill + Partner GmbH and 15 years of management by Dr. Florian H. H. Brill. In a relaxed summer atmosphere – and with almost no rain! – personal exchanges once again demonstrated how valuable trusting cooperation and long-standing partnerships are to us.

2025 was also a strong year in terms of sports: our participation in the Blankeneser Heldenlauf (Blankenese Heroes Run) demonstrated team spirit, cohesion, and commitment – and above all, it was a lot of fun for everyone involved!

Social responsibility remains an important concern for us. That is why we made donations again at Christmas, once more supporting FUTUREPRENEUR e.V. and tat für tat: malawi e.V. – two organizations that are committed to education, development, and fair opportunities in the long term. Our colleagues at Hydrotox also largely refrained from sending Christmas cards by post and instead made a donation to Ökostation Freiburg – Das Umweltbildungszentrum mit Charme (Freiburg Eco Station – The Environmental Education Center with Charm).

With gratitude, we look back on a varied and positive 2025 – and are very much looking forward to the next steps now! Some exciting innovations and projects are already in the pipeline – more on that soon.

We are starting the new year with confidence and energy – and wish all our employees, partners, and customers for 2026 lots of luck, health, and success on all levels!

We are extremely proud and delighted to welcome Toni Luise Meister as a new member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Dr. Brill Institutes. She combines excellent scientific expertise with broad experience in modern virology. With her remarkable scientific career, Toni Meister brings precisely the interdisciplinary expertise, strategic vision, and scientific credibility that will strengthen the Scientific Advisory Board of Dr. Brill Institutes in the long term:

Toni Luise Meister is a scientist at the IIRVD - Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Toni Meister earned a Bachelor of Science in Plant Biotechnology with a focus on molecular biology methods from Leibniz University Hannover in 2015. In 2017, she completed her Master of Science in Biomedicine at Hannover Medical School.

In 2021, she received her doctorate from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr University Bochum. Her doctoral thesis focused on viral and host determinants in the hepatitis E virus replication cycle. She was also involved in various research projects on SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.

After completing her doctorate, Toni Meister worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the same department, where she was able to expand her virological knowledge of a wide range of viruses. Her work has been recognized several times with the Best Season Paper Award from the Society for Virology. She also served as an expert in the drafting of guidelines for dealing with aerosol-transmissible pathogens and is a member of the Society for Virology (GfV) and Infect-Net.

Since October 2023, she has been working as a senior postdoc in the DZIF research area Emerging Infections (link: HERE) at the Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development.

Link to Toni Meister's DZIF junior research group "Molecular Virology of Emerging Viruses": HERE

She is also an associate project leader (PI) in the Collaborative Research Center 1648 "Emerging Viruses". Link: HERE

ORCID

Contact

Hydrotox Labor für Ökotoxikologie und Gewässerschutz GmbH (Laboratory for Ecotoxicology and Water Protection) can now be reached at the following new telephone number: +49 761 216393-0. Please update your records accordingly. The extension numbers remain valid. Our Hydrotox colleagues in Freiburg look forward to your call. All contact details for the DR. BRILL INSTITUTES group can be found here: Contact

From 21st to 22nd October 2025, the CRO days (Contract research organisation days) took place for the second time in Helsinki, with Andrea Brunswik-Titze from Hydrotox GmbH attending. The meeting was organised by the ECHA (European Chemical Agency) and was addressed to CROs from the OECD region in order to promote exchange between regulatory authorities and testing laboratories. A total of 27 CROs from the EU, Ukraine, the UK, Switzerland, the USA, India and Japan attended the meeting to discuss regulatory requirements as well as the technical challenges involved in conducting ecotoxicological studies and biodegradability studies for REACH purposes. The topics focused on substances that are difficult to test in aquatic toxicity tests, simulation studies on degradation and bioaccumulation, and the importance of test material characterization and analytical challenges. The exchange was considered very valuable by both ECHA and the CROs, and further meetings of this kind are to follow in the future.

Further information on the event including the meeting summary can be found HERE.

We are pleased to announce that Elena Perabo (Study Director Ecotoxicology, Hydrotox) will be a speaker at this year's Biocides Europe.
The renowned conference will take place on December 1–2, 2025, in Vienna, Austria, bringing together leading experts from industry, science, and regulatory authorities to discuss the latest developments in biocide regulation and research.

Elena Perabo will give her presentation entitled “Efficacy evaluation of algicides” on December 2 at 16:05 as part of the session “Important efficacy updates.”

Further information on registration and the conference program can be found HERE.

The Hydrotox Team is happy to host the "JUCOET - The Youth Organization of the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry & Ecotoxicology" in our lab on 25 June 2025

With rich participation of the DR. BRILL INSTITUTES Group, the SETAC Europe Annual Meeting will take place in Vienna from May 11-15, 2025 - under the overall theme “Innovation for Tomorrow: Progress in Safe and Sustainable Concepts.” For our part, Dr. Brill Regulatory Services GmbH and Hydrotox GmbH are both involved, both in terms of personnel and content - and for the first time even with their own exhibition stand!

Our commitment in detail:

Session 6.07: “Environmental Risk Assessment under Biocides and other EU legislations” with presentation by Heike Schimmelpfennig, Dr. Brill Regulatory Services GmbH, on “Comparison of Environmental Exposure Assessment Strategies across Different EU Legislation”
Chair: Andrea Brunswik-Titze, Hydrotox GmbH
Co-chair: Aiga Latsone, ECHA, Heike Schimmelpfennig, Dr. Brill Regulatory Services GmbH

Poster contributions from Hydrotox GmbH:

• Elena Perabo, Dr. Christoph Hafner:
  "Sustainable green roofs for the implementation of the sponge city: Determination of ecotoxicologically safe construction products for green roofs"
• Andrea Brunswik-Titze, Stefan Gartiser:
  "Consolidation of OECD tests for ready biodegradability on the example of OECD 310"

Exhibition booth - Booth No. 3: For the first time, Hydrotox and Dr. Brill Regulatory Services will be represented with a joint booth at the SETAC Europe Annual Meeting.

Our colleagues on site are already looking forward to welcoming a hopefully large number of our customers and, of course, potential new customers to the beautifully styled stand - Booth No. 3. If you would like to make an appointment in advance, please contact us, e.g. by email here: info@brillhygiene.com

One-day free tickets: A small number of SETAC one-day free tickets are still available at Hydrotox, which we will be happy to pass on to you. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Christoph Hafner directly by email at hafner@hydrotox.de.

Use your participation in the SETAC Europe Annual Meeting for a personal meeting with us! The following colleagues will be present in Vienna: From Dr. Brill Regulatory Services Dr. Gunnar Kleist (Director Regulatory Services) and Heike Schimmelpfennig (Senior Manager Regulatory Affairs), as well as from Hydrotox Andrea Brunswik-Titze (Team Leader and Test Leader Biodegradability), Marie Bechstein (Test Leader Biodegradability), Elene Perabo (Test Leader Ecotoxicology, Third Party Research Projects) and Dr. Christoph Hafner (Head of GLP Test Facility, Customer Support).

The SETAC Europe Annual Meeting is an annual conference of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Europe that brings together scientists, policy makers and industry representatives to discuss current issues in the fields of environmental toxicology, ecotoxicology and environmental chemistry.

Main features of the conference:

• Topics: Environmental risk research, life cycle assessment, regulatory developments and scientific policy advice
• Formats: Scientific sessions, plenary lectures, training sessions and networking events
• Participants: 2,000-2,500 experts from over 60 countries

The conference serves as a platform for the exchange of new findings and promotes cooperation between research, industry and authorities.

Link: SETAC Europe 35th Annual Meeting

Our image clip about Hydrotox - Labor für Ökotoxikologie und Gewässerschutz GmbH (Laboratory for Ecotoxicology and Water Protection) has just been completed. Take a moment to find out more about the wide range of services offered by the Freiburg laboratory and get to know some of our friendly colleagues and their tasks. Let yourself be inspired - here: Hydrotox Image Clip

New research project “International ring test for the consolidation of OECD 301 tests for ready biodegradability”.

Over the next 3 years, Hydrotox GmbH will be working on the project “International ring test for the consolidation of OECD 301 tests for ready biodegradability” on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency. The aim is to develop a consolidated test design for testing ready biodegradability based on OECD 301 or 310 and to organize an international ring test with 10 GLP laboratories to validate the method. The ring test statistics are evaluated by ToxRat Solutions GmbH & Co. KG.

Dr. Brill Regulatory Service GmbH was recently integrated into the Dr. Brill Institutes. This also opens up new perspectives and synergy effects for Hydrotox.

With a real “dream team”, the Dr. Brill Institutes will in future offer customers from the industry their own regulatory service. Heike Schimmelpfennig and Dr. Gunnar Kleist, each with two decades of regulatory experience in different areas of industry and public authorities, offer a 360-degree view of chemical testing and approval of biocides (active substances and products). In conjunction with the GLP laboratory at Hydrotox, this also opens up new perspectives in the planning of tests and the evaluation of results. Further information can be found at Dr. Brill Regulatory Services GmbH.

We have the pleasure informing you that 35 years after establishing of Hydrotox – Laboratory for Ecotoxicology and Water Protection GmbH, Dr. Stefan Gartiser will retire. The business handover was carefully prepared and completed in January 2024, when Hydrotox GmbH was acquired by Dr. Brill Institutes Group based in Hamburg. The new managing director of Hydrotox GmbH is Dr. Florian H. H. Brill. Your local contact at Hydrotox remains Dr. Christoph Hafner, who is the representative of the local management and has been assigned with the respective power of attorney.

Thus, a new generation takes over at Hydrotox. However, you as our customer will not face apparent changes in the operational processes, as the entire Hydrotox team continues to support you in future with the usual trustworthiness at Freiburg.

The Dr. Brill Institutes Group is a medium-size, family-owned group of companies with the headquarter in Hamburg. The group consists of various laboratories such as the Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology and the Institute for Antifouling and Biocorrosion and employs around 70 people at various locations in Germany. By integrating Hydrotox, synergy effects are released by optimizing and streamlining processes. In addition, the Dr. Brill Institutes Group offers its customers an expanded product portfolio from a wide range of laboratory services to regulatory consulting services in the new Dr. Brill Regulatory Services GmbH. For more information, visit www.brillinstitutes.com.

We look forward continuing our successful cooperation in the future.

New research project on “Transformation and model solutions for roofs of the blue-green city”

Over the next three years, Hydrotox will be working on the ReFoPlan joint project “Implementation of the sponge city: Identification of the 10 most effective levers of the necessary transformation and sustainable model solutions for roofs of the blue-green city” on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency. Project partners are the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW, overall project management), landscape architect Prof. Dr. Manfred Köhler, the Water Technology Center (TZW) Karlsruhe and Goetz & Heintze Garten- und Landschaftsbau GmbH. Hydrotox is in charge of work package 5 “Laboratory tests” and is carrying out ecotoxicity tests on building product eluates and roof run-off water in particular.