Hildegard Przyrembel, M.D., Ph.D., started her career at the University Children's Hospital Ulm working on a project financed by the German Society for Research on the amino acid requirement of premature infants, combining analytical laboratory work with a clinical education in paediatrics, with special emphasis on inborn errors of metabolism. After moving to the University Children's Hospital Dรผsseldorf for the continuation of her specialisation in paediatrics, Dr. Przyrembel was, in addition, head of the laboratory for inborn errors of metabolism. This work, in cooperation with the metabolic laboratories of the Hammersmith Hospital, London, and the University Children's Hospital in Utrecht, led to the discovery and definition of two new inborn errors of lysine metabolism. This was also the basis of her inaugural dissertation in 1979.
In 1980, Dr. Przyrembel moved to the University Children's Hospital Rotterdam and the Department of Cell Biology and Clinical Genetics of the Erasmus-University, Rotterdam, to become head of the Unit for Metabolic Disorders and of the Metabolic Laboratory. In cooperation with the Department of Biochemistry, the emphasis of her work shifted to defects in fatty acid oxidation and of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and their accessability to therapeutic measures. During this period she spent three months at the J.F. Kennedy Institute for Basic Research in Mental Retardation in Denver, Colorado, USA. She was a member of the Dutch Guidance Committee for the Treatment of Phenylketonuria and contributed chapters to Dutch textbooks on paediatrics and medical genetics.
In 1990, Dr. Przyrembel accepted a position in the Unit Nutrition in Medicine at the Federal Institute of Health at Berlin. This included analytical laboratory work, namely the analysis of the composition of non-protein nitrogen in infant formula. She worked predominantly as a consultant in infant and child nutrition and dietetic therapy, both on national and international panels.
Since the foundation of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in November 2002, Dr. Przyrembelโs tasks were on the assessment of both benefits and risks in connection with dietary habits, including breastfeeding, and connected with the use of ingredients, nutrients, whole foods and with residues (if the latter occur in human milk or foods for infants and children). In 2000, Dr. Przyrembel started as an expert and rapporteur (biotin, calcium, protein and carbohydrates in infant formula) in the working groups on Upper Levels of Vitamins and Minerals, on Infant Formula Composition, and on Food Additives (Nutrient Compounds) of the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission.
Dr. Przyrembel was appointed a member of the Scientific Panel on Nutrition, Dietetic Foods and Allergy of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in May 2003. Recent and actual tasks for EFSA include setting nutrient reference values, including upper levels for minerals and vitamins, safety of new ingredients in infant formula, safety of trans-fatty acids, safety and benefits of fish consumption, assessment of the scientific justification of claims in connection with nutrients/foods and nutritional effects of foods consisting of or derived from genetically modified organisms (contribution to >400 EFSA Opinions).