Gaining deeper insight into the mechanisms and regulation of nutrient and xenobiotic transport across the placenta and the blood-milk barrier is the main objective of Christiane Albrecht’s current research. She is particularly interested in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of lipid transport across the placenta and the mammary gland.

Her team collaborates among others with clinicians at the University Hospital Bern (Inselspital, Switzerland) and the Imperial College London (UK) to study the involvement of membrane lipid transporters in placental pathology. Another principal area of Albrecht’s research investigates ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and solute carriers in the mammary gland. Here, the aim is to identify and characterize lipid, drug and vitamin transporters in this organ and to determine their localization and function.

Albrecht has been studying physiological transport mechanisms mediated by ABC transporters since 2000. She has mainly focused on ABCA1-mediated transport of lipids and cholesterol, both in rare hereditary diseases and in disorders of the general population, such as atherosclerosis and diabetes. Her recent scientific projects examined both physiological and pathophysiological conditions, and included expressional and functional studies to investigate the cause and consequences of aberrant ABCA1 function.

During her post-doctoral studies at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College London (UK), she carried out molecular biological and genetic studies with patients suffering from various disorders, such as HDL deficiency, bleeding disorders and atherosclerotic disease.

Albrecht’s scientific career has led her from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre to the Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München (Germany), and, in 2006, to the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of Bern (Switzerland).

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