Awat Dostberg
About me
Ph.D. student in professor Ulrika Nilsson's textile research group at the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University.
During 2020-21 I performed my Master's project in the textile research group at the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University. Furthermore, I started to work as a Lab manager/course assistant at the analytical chemistry department at the same University in Nov 2021. Then, in Sep 2022, I started my Ph.D. project, 'Azo dyes, quinolines, and anilines in clothing - daily human exposure to harmful chemicals.' supervised by Prof Ulrika Nilsson.
Teaching
Course assistant in Mass Spectrometry course, and supervising diploma works.
Research
In my Master's project, 'In vitro skin permeation studies of textile-related chemicals,' I studied in vitro the ability of some selected textile chemicals to penetrate human skin, using a model membrane mimicking human skin. The focus was on azo dyes, known as strong skin sensitizers, and also related arylamines. Arylamines are dye precursors or decomposition products from azo dyes and are suspected to have health effects such as contact allergenicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity.
As part of the chemical screening of textiles, I will focus on investigating infant clothes. Another aspect of this project's scope is the environmental fate of textile-related chemicals in the laundry. The textile chemical research group has invented a new screening technology for compounds that may migrate from textiles to the skin and be absorbed by human skin. ATD-GC/MS method is based on the thermal desorption of these chemicals from the textiles; a part of my project focuses on this new screening technology.