Annika Klauke

Accurate and clean work with tiny amounts of genetic material is part of Annika Klauke's daily routine. She is a laboratory technician in the Fraunhofer ITEM Department of Preclinical Pharmacology and In-vitro Toxicology. Together with her colleagues, she has delved deeply into molecular biological work with RNA and DNA over the years, thereby building up the in-depth expertise that is essential to obtain valid research results in this field – especially when it comes to analyzing complex samples.

It was at quite an early age that Annika Klauke discovered her passion for molecular biology – first through a brief internship with her aunt, who was working on her doctorate as a biologist in a molecular biology laboratory at the time, and then during her apprenticeship as an agricultural laboratory technician. As an apprentice, she learned things like how to visually identify a good laying hen, but what really fascinated her was the molecular biological work in the lab. Right after her apprenticeship, at just 17 years of age, she started working at Fraunhofer ITEM as a molecular biology laboratory technician. “I loved working in the very well-equipped labs in a really great team – even if it did get late sometimes. And to this day, we teammates from back then are still close friends," she says. She much enjoys doing a useful job as part of a large team, such as in the major project ExITox-II – Explain Inhalation Toxicity II. This project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, was aimed at developing an integrated testing strategy for human health risk assessment of repeated-dose toxicity after inhalation exposure so as to replace de-novo animal testing. A variety of analyses were performed to this end, including genome-wide transcriptome analyses in human precision-cut lung slices and cell cultures. During this project, Annika Klauke and her team colleagues had the chance to directly compare three analytical methods – RT-qPCR, HTS methods, and microarrays – using the same sample material. They were able to show that the data obtained with all three methods of analysis were in perfect agreement, which means that the team had generated absolutely valid data.

A completely different aspect of Annika Klauke’s work is her role as an instructor of apprentices. For more than ten years, she has been in charge of the biological laboratory technician apprentices at Fraunhofer ITEM. In addition, she is a member of the examination board of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Hannover. Her job there is to examine biological laboratory technicians, but also interns from other countries who wish to have their qualifications recognized – among these some Syrians and Ukrainians who did an internship at Fraunhofer ITEM.

"In contrast to working in the lab, which is rather small-scale and extremely clean, I also much enjoy putting my hands in the soil," Annika Klauke says about her hobby, which is gardening at home in her own garden, designed to be close to nature and insect-friendly, as well as at a solidarity farm, where she grows and harvests organic vegetables together with others. This hobby is a nice counterbalance – and something she also considers useful, like her work in the lab.