Selected Publications

ZORA Publication List

Publications

• 2025

  • Journal Article

    • Partanen, S. B., Mueller, N., & Fenner, K. (2025). High-Throughput Miniaturized Biotransformation Testing Using Activated Sludge Enables Rapid Chemical Persistence Assessment Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 12, 1561–1566. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.5c00859
    • Rich, S. L., Hafner, J., Salz, M., Qanbarzadeh, M., Geng, F., Yan, L., Liu, J., Helbling, D. E., Higgins, C. P., & Fenner, K. (2025). FAIR and Effective Communication of Data on Chemical Contaminant Biotransformation in the Environment Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 12, 1462–1470. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.5c00753
    • Cordero Solano, J. A., Hafner, J., McLachlan, M. S., Singer, H., & Fenner, K. (2025). Predicting Micropollutant Removal in Wastewater Treatment Based on Molecular Structure: Benchmark Data and Models Environmental Science & Technology, 59, 22020–22028. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c09314
    • Meyer, C., McArdell, C. S., Fenner, K., Joss, A., & Hollender, J. (2025). Comparing the abatement of pharmaceuticals and their human metabolites in wastewater treatment plants – Insights from biological and advanced treatment stages Water Research, 285, 123983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123983
    • Zhang, K., Schwaller, P., & Fenner, K. (2025). Predicting Toxicity toward Nitrifiers by Attention-Enhanced Graph Neural Networks and Transfer Learning from Baseline Toxicity Environmental Science & Technology, 59, 4518–4529. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c12247
    • Kalt, M., Udressy, C. I., Yu, Y., Colliquet, A., & Fenner, K. (2025). Preserving the Biotransformation Potential of Activated Sludge in Time: Toward Reproducible Incubation Experiments for Persistence Assessment Environmental Science & Technology, 59, 4597–4607. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c08657
    • Coll, C., Screpanti, C., Hafner, J., Zhang, K., & Fenner, K. (2025). Read-Across of Biotransformation Potential between Activated Sludge and the Terrestrial Environment: Toward Making It Practical and Plausible Environmental Science & Technology, 59, 1790–1800. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c09306
    • Chonova, T., Ruppe, S., Langlois, I., Griesshaber, D. S., Loos, M., Honti, M., Fenner, K., & Singer, H. (2025). Unveiling industrial emissions in a large European river: Insights from data mining of high-frequency measurements Water Research, 268, 122745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.122745

• 2024

  • Journal Article

    • Tian, R., Posselt, M., Fenner, K., & McLachlan, M. S. (2024). Variability of Biodegradation Rates of Commercial Chemicals in Rivers in Different Regions of Europe Environmental Science & Technology, 58, 20201–20210. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c07410
    • Seller-Brison, C., Brison, A., Yu, Y., Robinson, S. L., & Fenner, K. (2024). Adaptation towards catabolic biodegradation of trace organic contaminants in activated sludge Water Research, 266, 122431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.122431
    • Attrah, M., Schärer, M. R., Esposito, M., Gionchetta, G., Bürgmann, H., Lens, P. N. L., Fenner, K., van de Vossenberg, J., & Robinson, S. L. (2024). Disentangling abiotic and biotic effects of treated wastewater on stream biofilm resistomes enables the discovery of a new planctomycete beta-lactamase Microbiome, 12, 164. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-024-01879-w
    • Hafner, J., Lorsbach, T., Schmidt, S., Brydon, L., Dost, K., Zhang, K., Fenner, K., & Wicker, J. (2024). Advancements in biotransformation pathway prediction: enhancements, datasets, and novel functionalities in enviPath Journal of Cheminformatics, 16, 93. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13321-024-00881-6
    • Meynet, P., Joss, A., Davenport, R. J., & Fenner, K. (2024). Impact of long-term temperature shifts on activated sludge microbiome dynamics and micropollutant removal Water Research, 258, 121790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.121790
    • Yu, Y., Trottmann, N. F., Schärer, M. R., Fenner, K., & Robinson, S. L. (2024). Substrate promiscuity of xenobiotic-transforming hydrolases from stream biofilms impacted by treated wastewater Water Research, 256, 121593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.121593
    • Zahn, D., Arp, H. P. H., Fenner, K., Georgi, A., Hafner, J., Hale, S. E., Hollender, J., Letzel, T., Schymanski, E. L., Sigmund, G., & Reemtsma, T. (2024). Should Transformation Products Change the Way We Manage Chemicals? Environmental Science & Technology, 58, 7710–7718. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c00125
    • Tian, R., Posselt, M., Miaz, L. T., Fenner, K., & McLachlan, M. S. (2024). Influence of Season on Biodegradation Rates in Rivers Environmental Science & Technology, 58, 7144–7153. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c10541
    • Schittich, A., Fenner, K., Stedmon, C. A., Xu, J., McKnight, U. S., & Smets, B. F. (2024). Coupling pathway prediction and fluorescence spectroscopy to assess the impact of auxiliary substrates on micropollutant biodegradation Environmental Microbiology, 26, e16560. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16560
    • Bosshard, J., Fenner, K., Singer, H., Anliker, S., & Gulde, R. (2024). Abwasser aus chemisch-pharmazeutischen Synthesebetrieben. Charakterisierung der Stoffeinträge in Gewässer Aqua & Gas, 104, 43–49. https://www.dora.lib4ri.ch/eawag/islandora/object/eawag:32601

• 2023

  • Journal Article

    • Karakurt-Fischer, S., Johnson, D. R., Fenner, K., & Hafner, J. (2023). Making waves: Enhancing pollutant biodegradation via rational engineering of microbial consortia Water Research, 247, 120756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2023.120756
    • Coll, C., Fenner, K., & Screpanti, C. (2023). Early Assessment of Biodegradability of Small Molecules to Support the Chemical Design in Agro & Pharma R&D Chimia, 77, 742–749. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2023.742
    • Hafner, J., Fenner, K., & Scheidegger, A. (2023). Systematic Handling of Environmental Fate Data for Model Development─Illustrated for the Case of Biodegradation Half-Life Data Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 10, 859–864. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00526
    • Honti, M., Zsugyel, M., Seller, C., & Fenner, K. (2023). Benchmarking the Persistence of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients in River Systems Environmental Science & Technology, 57, 14684–14693. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01627
    • Zhang, K., & Fenner, K. (2023). enviRule: an end-to-end system for automatic extraction of reaction patterns from environmental contaminant biotransformation pathways Bioinformatics, 39, btad407. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btad407
    • Varga, L., Fenner, K., Singer, H., & Honti, M. (2023). From market to environment – consumption-normalised pharmaceutical emissions in the Rhine catchment Water Research, 239, 120017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2023.120017
    • Seller, C., Varga, L., Börgardts, E., Vogler, B., Janssen, E., Singer, H., Fenner, K., & Honti, M. (2023). Do biotransformation data from laboratory experiments reflect micropollutant degradation in a large river basin? Water Research, 235, 119908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2023.119908
    • Escher, B. I., Altenburger, R., Blüher, M., Colbourne, J. K., Ebinghaus, R., Fantke, P., Hein, M., Köck, W., Kümmerer, K., Leipold, S., Li, X., Scheringer, M., Scholz, S., Schloter, M., Schweizer, P.-J., Tal, T., Tetko, I., Traidl-Hoffmann, C., Wick, L. Y., & Fenner, K. (2023). Modernizing persistence–bioaccumulation–toxicity (PBT) assessment with high throughput animal-free methods Archives of Toxicology, 97, 1267–1283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-023-03485-5
    • Satoh, H., Hafner, J., Hutter, J., & Fenner, K. (2023). Can AI Help Improve Water Quality? Towards the Prediction of Degradation of Micropollutants in Wastewater Chimia, 77, 48. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2023.48
    • Tian, R., Posselt, M., Fenner, K., & McLachlan, M. S. (2023). Increasing the Environmental Relevance of Biodegradation Testing by Focusing on Initial Biodegradation Kinetics and Employing Low-Level Spiking Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 10, 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00811
    • Trostel, L., Coll, C., Fenner, K., & Hafner, J. (2023). Combining predictive and analytical methods to elucidate pharmaceutical biotransformation in activated sludge Environmental Science: Processes, 25, 1322–1336. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3em00161j

• 2022

  • Journal Article

    • Davenport, R., Curtis‐Jackson, P., Dalkmann, P., Davies, J., Fenner, K., Hand, L., McDonough, K., Ott, A., Ortega‐Calvo, J. J., Parsons, J. R., Schäffer, A., Sweetlove, C., Trapp, S., Wang, N., & Redman, A. (2022). Scientific concepts and methods for moving persistence assessments into the 21st century Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 18, 1454–1487. https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.4575
    • Riedo, J., Herzog, C., Banerjee, S., Fenner, K., Walder, F., van der Heijden, M. G. A., & Bucheli, T. D. (2022). Concerted Evaluation of Pesticides in Soils of Extensive Grassland Sites and Organic and Conventional Vegetable Fields Facilitates the Identification of Major Input Processes Environmental Science & Technology, 56, 13686–13695. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c02413
    • Desiante, W. L., Carles, L., Wullschleger, S., Joss, A., Stamm, C., & Fenner, K. (2022). Wastewater microorganisms impact the micropollutant biotransformation potential of natural stream biofilms Water Research, 217, 118413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118413
    • Anliker, S., Santiago, S., Fenner, K., & Singer, H. (2022). Large-scale assessment of organic contaminant emissions from chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing into Swiss surface waters Water Research, 215, 118221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118221
    • Athanasakoglou, A., & Fenner, K. (2022). Toward Characterizing the Genetic Basis of Trace Organic Contaminant Biotransformation in Activated Sludge: The Role of Multicopper Oxidases as a Case Study Environmental Science & Technology, 56, 313–324. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c05803

  • Dissertation

    • Naef, N. U. (2022). Heterogeneous Catalysis on Silicone Nanofilaments (Dissertation, University of Zurich)
    • Riedo, J. (2022). Occurrence of pesticides in agricultural soils and their influence on beneficial soil microorganisms (Dissertation, University of Zurich)

• 2021

  • Journal Article

    • Seller, C., Özel Duygan, B. D., Honti, M., & Fenner, K. (2021). Biotransformation of Chemicals at the Water–Sediment Interface─Toward a Robust Simulation Study Setup ACS Environmental Au, 1, 46–57. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenvironau.1c00006
    • Fenner, K., & Scheringer, M. (2021). The Need for Chemical Simplification As a Logical Consequence of Ever-Increasing Chemical Pollution Environmental Science & Technology, 55, 14470–14472. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c04903
    • Özel Duygan, B. D., Gaille, C., Fenner, K., & van der Meer, J. R. (2021). Assessing Antibiotics Biodegradation and Effects at Sub-inhibitory Concentrations by Quantitative Microbial Community Deconvolution Frontiers in Environmental Science, 9, 737247. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.737247
    • Fenner, K., & Men, Y. (2021). Comment on “Role of Ammonia Oxidation in Organic Micropollutant Transformation during Wastewater Treatment”: Overlooked Evidence to the Contrary Environmental Science & Technology, 55, 12128–12129. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c04178
    • Chalifour, A., Walser, J.-C., Pomati, F., & Fenner, K. (2021). Temperature, phytoplankton density and bacteria diversity drive the biotransformation of micropollutants in a lake ecosystem Water Research, 202, 117412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117412
    • Gallou, F., & Fenner, K. (2021). A Roadmap Towards Sustainable Chemical Products and Processes for Switzerland Chimia, 75, 697. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2021.697
    • Hübner, U., Wolff, D., Achermann, S., Drewes, J. E., Wick, A., & Fenner, K. (2021). Analyzing (Initial) Biotransformation Reactions as an Organizing Principle for Unraveling the Extent of Trace Organic Chemical Biotransformation in Biofiltration Systems Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 1, 1921–1931. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.1c00145
    • Kennes-Veiga, D. M., Vogler, B., Fenner, K., Carballa, M., & Lema, J. M. (2021). Heterotrophic enzymatic biotransformations of organic micropollutants in activated sludge Science of the Total Environment, 780, 146564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146564
    • Fenner, K., Elsner, M., Lueders, T., McLachlan, M. S., Wackett, L. P., Zimmermann, M., & Drewes, J. E. (2021). Methodological Advances to Study Contaminant Biotransformation: New Prospects for Understanding and Reducing Environmental Persistence? ACS Sensors, 1, 1541–1554. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.1c00025
    • Zumstein, M. T., & Fenner, K. (2021). Towards more Sustainable Peptide-based Antibiotics: Stable in Human Blood, Enzymatically Hydrolyzed in Wastewater? Chimia, 75, 267. https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2021.267
    • Desiante, W. L., Minas, N. S., & Fenner, K. (2021). Micropollutant biotransformation and bioaccumulation in natural stream biofilms Water Research, 193, 116846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.116846

• 2020

  • Journal Article

    • Anliker, S., Patrick, M., Fenner, K., & Singer, H. (2020). Quantification of Active Ingredient Losses from Formulating Pharmaceutical Industries and Contribution to Wastewater Treatment Plant Emissions Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 15046–15056. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05178
    • Meynet, P., Davenport, R. J., & Fenner, K. (2020). Understanding the Dependence of Micropollutant Biotransformation Rates on Short-Term Temperature Shifts Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 12214–12225. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c04017
    • Seller, C., Honti, M., Singer, H., & Fenner, K. (2020). Biotransformation of chemicals in water–sediment suspensions: influencing factors and implications for persistence assessment Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 7, 854–860. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00725
    • Anliker, S., Loos, M., Comte, R., Ruff, M., Fenner, K., & Singer, H. (2020). Assessing Emissions from Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Based on Temporal High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Data Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 4110–4120. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b07085
    • Mansfeldt, C., Deiner, K., Mächler, E., Fenner, K., Eggen, R. I. L., Stamm, C., Schönenberger, U., Walser, J.-C., & Altermatt, F. (2020). Microbial community shifts in streams receiving treated wastewater effluent Science of the Total Environment, 709, 135727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135727
    • Fenner, K., Screpanti, C., Renold, P., Rouchdi, M., Vogler, B., & Rich, S. (2020). Comparison of Small Molecule Biotransformation Half-Lives between Activated Sludge and Soil: Opportunities for Read-Across? Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 3148–3158. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b05104
    • Wang, Y., Fenner, K., & Helbling, D. E. (2020). Clustering micropollutants based on initial biotransformations for improved prediction of micropollutant removal during conventional activated sludge treatment Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology, 6, 554–565. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EW00838A
    • Achermann, S., Mansfeldt, C. B., Müller, M., Johnson, D. R., & Fenner, K. (2020). Relating metatranscriptomic profiles to the micropollutant biotransformation potential of complex microbial communities Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b05421

• 2019

  • Journal Article

    • Mansfeldt, C., Achermann, S., Men, Y., Walser, J.-C., Villez, K., Joss, A., Johnson, D. R., & Fenner, K. (2019). Microbial residence time is a controlling parameter of the taxonomic composition and functional profile of microbial communities The ISME Journal, 13, 1589–1601. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0371-6

• 2018

  • Journal Article

    • Honti, M., Bischoff, F., Moser, A., Stamm, C., Baranya, S., & Fenner, K. (2018). Relating Degradation of Pharmaceutical Active Ingredients in a Stream Network to Degradation in Water-Sediment Simulation Tests Water Resources Research, 54, 9207–9223. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018wr023592
    • Wang, Y., Lai, A., Latino, D., Fenner, K., & Helbling, D. E. (2018). Evaluating the environmental parameters that determine aerobic biodegradation half-lives of pesticides in soil with a multivariable approach Chemosphere, 209, 430–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.06.077
    • Achermann, S., Falås, P., Joss, A., Mansfeldt, C. B., Men, Y., Vogler, B., & Fenner, K. (2018). Trends in Micropollutant Biotransformation along a Solids Retention Time Gradient Environmental Science & Technology, 52, 11601–11611. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b02763
    • Achermann, S., Bianco, V., Mansfeldt, C. B., Vogler, B., Kolvenbach, B. A., Corvini, P. F. X., & Fenner, K. (2018). Biotransformation of Sulfonamide Antibiotics in Activated Sludge: The Formation of Pterin-Conjugates Leads to Sustained Risk Environmental Science & Technology, 52, 6265–6274. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b06716
    • Gulde, R., Anliker, S., Kohler, H.-P. E., & Fenner, K. (2018). Ion trapping of amines in protozoa: a novel removal mechanism for micropollutants in activated sludge Environmental Science & Technology, 52, 52–60. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b03556

• 2017

  • Journal Article

    • Riegraf, C., Fenner, K., Werner, I., & Kase, R. (2017). Grenzwerte für Transformationsprodukte. Herleitung von ökotoxikologisch basierten Grenzwerten für TP von Pharmazeutika: eine Fallstudie Aqua & Gas, 97, 46–56.
    • Lee, M., Blum, L. C., Schmid, E., Fenner, K., & von Gunten, U. (2017). A computer-based prediction platform for the reaction of ozone with organic compounds in aqueous solution: kinetics and mechanisms Environmental Science: Processes, 19, 465–476. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6em00584e
    • Men, Y., Achermann, S., Helbling, D. E., Johnson, D. R., & Fenner, K. (2017). Relative contribution of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and other members of nitrifying activated sludge communities to micropollutant biotransformation Water Research, 109, 217–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2016.11.048
    • Latino, D. A. R. S., Wicker, J., Gütlein, M., Schmid, E., Kramer, S., & Fenner, K. (2017). Eawag-Soil in enviPath: a new resource for exploring regulatory pesticide soil biodegradation pathways and half-life data Environmental Science: Processes, 19, 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6em00697c