Nils Klüver studied molecular and developmental biology at the University of Würzburg and received his PhD degree on the molecular mechanism of gonad development in fish. He did a postdoc at the National University of Singapore at the Department for Biological Sciences. In July 2008, he joined the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental research and continued his work as postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Bioanalytical Ecotoxicology and the Department of Cell Toxicology. In 2012 he received the EPAA 3Rs Science Award to perform a post-validation study for the zebrafish embryo toxicity test (ZFET). From 2015-2018 he was involved in the IMI project iPiE (intelligent Assessment of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment). Since 2019 he became a senior scientist at the Department of Bioanalytical Ecotoxicology and is Leader of the Zebrafish facility.

His research is focused on the development of animal alternatives for risk assessment by using the zebrafish embryo. A particular focus of the work is on the optimization of assessment methods for sublethal endpoints, e.g. behavioral assays, heart beat and blood flow measurements and gene expression changes (toxicity pathways) to increase predictivity of the zebrafish embryo model for adult fish toxicity (acute and chronic). He has experience in linking toxicogenomic and behavioral responses of sublethal chemical exposures in the zebrafish embryo to specific modes of action and respective biomarkers. He is interested in toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic processes to relate observed effects to internal concentrations in the zebrafish embryo model. By performing gene knock downs he studies specific gene functions during embryo development in combination with chemical exposures.