Summary
Erika is the Chemistry Department's Operations Manager, leading on the professional and technical operations of the Department across the White City and South Kensington campuses, delivering operational excellence across all technical and administrative activities, and managing the Department’s external relations initiatives. She determines and implements the Department’s support strategy for teaching and research, and developes administrative policies and procedures. She co-ordinates with Support Service groups across the Faculty and College to
ensure effective administrative support for the Department, and to initiate and manage change.
She holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics and her post-doctoral research was focused on phosphoinositide dependent cellular signalling, mitochondrial autophagy and endocrine disruption by pesticides and other environmental pollutants. She has provided consultancy services for the European Union regarding a “State of the art assessment of endocrine disrupters” - commissioned by DG Environment and managed EU-funded FP7 projects that involved improvements in regulatory chemical safety assessment.
In 2011 she became Project Manager at the Institute of Chemical Biology where she managed Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), followed by a secondment as Research Operations Manager at the Department of Chemistry. Erika became then Departmental Manager at the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL, before rejoining Imperial in 2018 where she was Director of Operations at the Grantham Institute.
Publications
Journals
Kugathas S, Audouze K, Ermler S, et al., 2016, Effects of Common Pesticides on Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) Inhibition in SC5 Mouse Sertoli Cells, Evidence of Binding at the COX-2 Active Site, and Implications for Endocrine Disruption, Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol:124, ISSN:0091-6765, Pages:452-459
Orton F, Ermler S, Kugathas S, et al., 2013, Mixture effects at very low doses with combinations of anti-androgenic pesticides, antioxidants, industrial pollutant and chemicals used in personal care products, Toxicol.appl.pharmacol.
Orton F, Rosivatz E, Scholze M, et al., 2012, Competitive androgen receptor antagonism as a factor determining the predictability of cumulative antiandrogenic effects of widely used pesticides, Environ.health Perspect., Vol:120, Pages:1578-1584
Kortenkamp A, Martin O, Evans R, et al., 2012, Response to A critique of the European Commission Document, "State of the Art Assessment of Endocrine Disrupters" by Rhomberg and colleagues--letter to the editor, Crit Rev.toxicol., Vol:42, Pages:787-789
Orton F, Rosivatz E, Scholze M, et al., 2011, Widely used pesticides with previously unknown endocrine activity revealed as in vitro antiandrogens, Environ.health Perspect., Vol:119, Pages:794-800