Dr. Heike Franke has been working at the Rudolf-Boehm-Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology (Medical Faculty) of the University of Leipzig (Germany). She studied chemistry in Leipzig, received her Ph.D. in the Chemistry Section (Organic Chemistry; Leipzig, 1988), and became a specialist chemist for toxicology (Leipzig, 1994). She is a member of the Neuroscientific Society and the German Toxicology Society. Her research interests include neuropharmacology, pharmacodynamics, and toxicology. She is the author of over 130 scientific publications, most of which were published in peer-reviewed journals in these fields (source from ResearchGate).
Dr. Dirk W. Lachenmeier is a state-certified food chemist, toxicologist, director of the Department of Plant-Based Foods, and co-head of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Laboratory at Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Agency, Karlsruhe, Germany. He studied food chemistry (first state examination) at the University of Bonn (1994–1998), followed by a position as a first-year resident at various food control institutions in the State of North Rhine-Westfalia, concluding the studies with the second state examination and title of state-certified food chemist (Münster, 2000). He carried out his Ph.D. in Forensic Toxicology at the Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Bonn (2000–2003). Since 2003, he has been employed at the Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Agency Karlsruhe (CVUAKA), Germany, where he first headed the alcohol laboratory (2003–2012), and later was promoted to director of the Department of Plant-Based Food, where he is personally heading the Central State Coffee Control Laboratory and the Central State Cannabis Control Laboratory, and his group includes a team of scientists and technicians investigating various matrices, such as tea, spice, bakery, and pasta products, food supplements, and products for special nutritional demands (diets). His department is responsible for the fields of “novel food products” and “Internet trade”.
