Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

German environmental research centre with sites at Leipzig, Halle and Magdeburg, founded in 1991 and part of the Helmholtz Association. Researches the effects of chemicals and pollutants on ecosystems and human health, with departments for ecological chemistry, bioanalytical ecotoxicology, cell toxicology and effect directed analysis, studies water, soil and biodiversity and environmental exposure, and runs its own analytical and biological laboratories with method development for chemical risk assessment.