Assessment of Thyroid Disrupting Chemicals

This conference will discuss developments in the assessment of thyroid disrupting effects of chemicals and will cover regulatory issues, testing approaches, modelling and tool development as well as news on recent projects.

Guaranteed realization
01.02. — 02.02.2023
Online Conference
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Overview

When you are involved in the identification and assessment of endocrine disruptors and their effects on the thyroid, this conference will offer you a great opportunity to stay on top of things. Inform yourself about the latest developments regarding assays, modelling and tools, regulatory issues as well as EU-wide projects.

Highlights

  • EFSA on the identification of thyroid disruptive pesticide active substances according to the EFSA/ECHA ED guidance
  • OECD work on the development of standardised methods for thyroid disruption testing
  • Toxicological assessment of thyroid toxicants in Great Britain
  • Thyroid related developmental neurotoxicity effects (DNT): Strategies for identification, new assays, AOPs and human epidemiological evidence
  • Update on activities within EU projects: EURION Cluster, ENDpoiNTs and ATHENA
  • Advancing translational applications of human organotypic thyroid assays
  • Biomarkers for detecting thyroid disrupting chemicals
  • New endpoints for thyroid hormone system disruptor testing with fish
  • Lessons learnt from XETA: combining in vitro & in vivo methods for comprehensive assessment of thyroid modes of action

Who should attend this conference?

Professionals working in the fields of:

  • Toxicology and ecotoxicology
  • Chemical risk assessment
  • Regulatory affairs
  • Research and development
  • Technical counselling

Sectors that should take part:

  • Chemical, biocide, agrochemical, cosmetic industries
  • Competent authorities, regulatory bodies and research institutes
  • Consultancies
  • Testing laboratories and contract research organisations (CROs)

Picture Credit: © Marko Aliaksandr - Shutterstock

 

Programme

PLEASE NOTE: The indicated times refer to Central European Time CET.

For further time zones, please view here.



Wednesday, 1 February 2023


Morning Session | 09:00 – 12:00 CET
Welcoming speech by the organisers and the Chairs

Stephanie Melching-Kollmuss, BASF, Germany
Martin Wilks, Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology, Switzerland
The presentation slots include sufficient time for questions and answers.

Regulatory Issues
Identification of thyroid disruptive pesticide active substances according to the ED criteria as implemented by the EFSA/ECHA guidance
  • The EFSA ED database on pesticide active substances, focus on T modality
  • The complexity and the limitations of the assessment based on the current dataset for pesticide active substances

Andrea Terron, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Italy

Toxicological assessment of thyroid toxicants in Great Britain
  • The approach taken by GB in the toxicological evaluation of potential thyroid toxicity of pesticides and biocides
  • Possible divergence from the EU approach with some real case studies
  • Developments of new test methods for the identification of thyroid toxicants

Susy Brescia, Health and Safety Executive, Chemicals Regulation Divison (HSE/CRD), United Kingdom

Short break
OECD work on the development of standardised methods for thyroid disruption testing
  • Harvesting from the EU-NETVAL
  • Current activities of the expert group
  • Challenges associated with batteries on in vitro assays

Anne Gourmelon, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France

Proposal for a thyroid testing and assessment scheme – update from the ECETOC task force
  • Weight of evidence analysis of adverse in vivo thyroid effects and in silico/in vitro thyroid activity
  • Mode of action and human relevance assessment of thyroid (hormone) effects
  • Higher tier animal testing to investigate neurodevelopmental toxicity
  • Thresholds of offspring thyroid hormone effects for induction of neurodevelopmental effects
  • Quantitative Adverse Outcome Pathways

Stephanie Melching-Kollmuss, BASF, Germany



Afternoon Session | 13:00 – 16:00 CET
Human-relevant Developmental Neurotoxicity
Human epidemiological evidence for thyroid-related neurodevelopmental effects from chemical exposure
  • Mechanisms related to thyroid-dependent brain development and how these could be impacted by thyroid disruptors
  • (Lack of) available studies on the mechanistic pathways of disruptors
  • Thyroid hormon availability and fetal brain development

Tim Korevaar, Erasmus University Medical Center, The Netherlands

Thyroid related developmental neurotoxicity effects
  • Studying health effects of thyroid-mediated neurodevelopment in a multidisciplinary team
  • Starting to develop a virtual human for thyroid-brainmediated neurotoxicity by mapping the human biology
  • Including human scenario’s such as age and sex

Ellen Hessel, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands

Short break
Evaluation of EOGRTS studies with focus on the thyroid and DNT endpoints
  • Introduction to EOGRTS incl. details of study design
  • Evaluation of 32 EOGRTS to investigate a link between the thyroid and DNT results
  • Recent request by ECHA to include Leaning & Memory assessments in the studies in which the DNT was triggered due to an effect on the thyroid

Manon Beekhuijzen, Charles River Laboratories, The Netherlands

Relevance of biomarkers of effect in the detection of thyroid-disrupting chemicals
  • Mechanistic in vivo studies to identify novel biomarkers of developmental neurotoxicity
  • Rapid and cost-effective assays
  • Biomarkers of effect: shortening in vivo testing paradigms and reducing the number of animals required

Katherine O‘Shaughnessy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America



Thursday, 2 February 2023


Morning Session | 09:00 – 12:00 CET
Activities within EU Projects and Testing for non-target Organisms
Update from the ATHENA project on assays for the identification of thyroid hormone axis-disrupting chemicals
  • Gaps in the current regime for testing and regulating thyroid hormone system disruptors
  • New approaches and test methods in ATHENA
  • Brief overview of the EURION cluster

Andreas Kortenkamp, Brunel University London, United Kingdom

New endpoints for thyroid hormone system disruptor testing with fish
  • Lack of thyroid-sensitive endpoints in fish as a result of the gap in the test battery for endocrine disruptor testing
  • Testing the implementation of new endpoints into OECD TGs 210, 234 and 236
  • Promising new endpoints: swim bladder inflation and eye development, combined with analyses of TH levels and thyroid follicle morphology

Lisa Baumann, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Short break
The ENDpoiNTs project: identifying endocrine disruption-induced developmental neurotoxicity – thyroid disruption and beyond
  • Developing novel methods and strategies to identify chemicals that induce developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) via an endocrine mode of action
  • New assays for thyroid-dependent DNT key events/processes
  • Novel endocrine pathways involved in DNT key events and the testing of their response to known endocrine disruptors and possible cross-talk with thyroid hormone signaling

Joëlle Rüegg, Uppsala University, Sweden

Lessons learnt from XETA: combining in vitro & in vivo methods for comprehensive assessment of thyroid modes of action
  • Identifying thyroid-active chemicals through OECD guidelines and ECHA/EFSA guidance
  • Mechanistic approach for comprehensive assessment of endocrine activity
  • Deciphering modes of action: towards comparative physiology

Gregory Lemkine, Laboratoire Watchfrog, France



Afternoon Session | 13:00 – 16:00 CET
New Approach Methodologies
NPC assays and their impact on the revelation of thyroid hormone sensitive targets for assessing hormonal disruption
  • Organ- and species-specific aspects of thyroid hormone receptor function with the focus on the developing brain
  • Assay for assessment of thyroid hormone disruption using human neural progenitor cells and a case study using this assay
  • Presentation of an adverse outcome pathway network

Ellen Fritsche, IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Germany

Thyroid Hormones Quantitative Systems Toxicology Platform (TH QST Platform) in rat and human for predictions of TH concentrations in the fetal (and pup) blood and brain

Pavel Balazki, esqLABS, Germany

Short break
Design of in vitro hepatocyte thyroid hormone glucuronidation assays for regulatory decision making
  • Study design of the comparative hepatocyte assay
  • Data evaluation and interpretation
  • Incorporating data into existing data using weight of evidence and assessing human relevance

Fang Zhang, Syngenta, United Kingdom

Advancing translational applications of human organotypic thyroid assays
  • Development of a human thyroid organotypic culture model to address data gaps in screening and prioritisation of thyroid disrupting chemicals
  • Establishing confidence with an inter-laboratory prevalidation study of the human thyroid microtissue assay
  • Orthogonal screening of prioritised chemicals in human thyroid microtissues for functional and mechanistic relevance

Chad Deisenroth, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America

Speakers

Name

Company

Balazki

Pavel Balazki

esqLABS

Pavel Balazki is Senior Scientist and Software ToolChain Lead at esqLABS. He is an interdisciplinary scientist with extensive experience in physiological modelling and programming skills. He focuses on the combination of modelling and software development to offer QSP platforms as integrated solutions. Pavel acquired strong knowledge and expertise in mechanistic and physiologically based PK/PD modelling, biology, and human physiology. He has developed scientific software tools for stochastic simulations of biological systems modelling and graph database-based text analysis.

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Baumann

Lisa Baumann

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lisa Baumann is an assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is specialized in aquatic toxicology with focus on endocrine effects, hepatotoxicity and immunotoxicity in fish. Special focuses of her work are developmental studies with zebrafish (embryos), as well as histopathological analyses. She is part of the EFSA working group for endocrine disruptors.

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Beekhuijzen

Manon Beekhuijzen

Charles River Laboratories, The Netherlands

Manon Beekhuijzen studied Medical Biology at the Utrecht University. In 1999, she joined Charles River in the Netherlands as Study Director for developmental and reproduction toxicology (DART) studies and was responsible for a major part in setting up all different type of DART and juvenile studies at this site. In 2014, she was promoted as section head DART (managing the DART study directors) and in 2018 this was extended to include the study directors of the general toxicology group. She is registered as European Toxicologist (ERT), past-president of the European Teratology Society (ETS), and board member of EUROTOX.

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Brescia

Susy Brescia

Health and Safety Executive, Chemicals Regulation Division (HSE/CRD), United Kingdom

Susy Brescia works as the Toxicology Team Leader at the UK HSE / CRD and has many years of experience in the risk assessment of pesticides, biocides and industrial chemicals. She has become an expert on testing and assessment of substances with ED properties and has been a member of DG ENV Expert Advisory Group, EFSA Working Group on EDs and ECHA Expert Group on EDs (EDEG).

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Deisenroth

Chad Deisenroth

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America

Chad Deisenroth holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology and joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2016 as a Cell Biologist in the Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure. He leads a research team focused on developing in vitro methods for high-throughput screening and organotypic culture modelling with an emphasis on endocrine toxicity, xenobiotic metabolism, and developmental toxicity. Previously, he was a Principal Investigator at the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences where he developed organotypic culture models and assays for metabolic disease and liver carcinogenesis. He has a particular interest in replacement of animal testing and is a member of the OECD Thyroid Disruption Methods Expert Group.

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Fritsche

Ellen Fritsche

IUF - Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Germany

Ellen Fritsche, MD, is habilitated for Environmental Toxicology and is appointed as a full Professor by the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf and holds in a joint appointment a Group Leader position at the IUF - Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine. Her lab has been developing and scientifically validating new approach methods (NAMs) for developmental (DNT) and adult neurotoxicity. She is part of an international consortium involving EFSA and the OECD that set up a DNT in vitro battery (IVB) for regulatory purposes and was involved in the preparation of an OECD guidance document on use and interpretation of this DNT IVB. She is actively involved in the H2020 and Horizon Europe projects on regulatory toxicology, ONTOX and PARK. Her work on hormone receptors and endocrine-related DNT is part of the H2020 project ENTpoiNTs.

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Gourmelon

Anne Gourmelon

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France

Anne Gourmelon has been working for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for twenty years. She started as a Project Manager for chemical safety, including the validation of methods for endocrine disruptors screening and testing, and is now Principal Administrator of the OECD’s Test Guidelines Programme. The programme aims at the development and harmonisation of test methods for chemical safety to meet regulatory needs in OECD member countries, and to enable the mutual acceptance of data across countries.

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Ellen Hessel

National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands

Ellen Hessel holds a PhD in neuroscience on animal models, in vitro assays and human genetic studies for epilepsy. Currently, she is Scientist and Project Coordinator at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) involved in policy-underpinning research and (inter)national policy advice in the area of developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) and endocrine disruption (ED). Her main areas of interest are hazard assessments for DNT and ED. She focuses on the evaluation and development of in vitro test methods and integrated testing strategies for hazard and risk assessment of chemical substances and on contributing to next generation risk assessment.

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Korevaar

Tim Korevaar

Erasmus University Medical Center, The Netherlands

Tim Korevaar is a postdoctoral fellow at the Endocrinology Department and Academic Center for Thyroid Disease of the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Tim studied medicine and obtained his PhD (cum laude) entitled ‘thyroid hormone availability during pregnancy and early life: determinants, interpretation and consequences’ at the Erasmus University Medical Center. His research focuses on thyroid function and glucose metabolism during fertility and pregnancy. He is the coordinator of the Consortium on Thyroid and Pregnancy and current co-chair of the ATA guidelines on Thyroid and Pregnancy.

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Kortenkamp

Andreas Kortenkamp

Brunel University London, United Kingdom

Andreas Kortenkamp is Professor for human toxicology at Brunel University London where he directs the Centre for Pollution Research and Policy. Among other involvements, he has produced the State of the Art Report on Endocrine Disruptors for the European Commission. He coordinates the EU-funded ATHENA project which aims to develop test methods for the identification of thyroid hormone system disrupting chemicals. ATHENA is part of the EURION cluster.

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Lemkine

Gregory Lemkine

Laboratoire Watchfrog, France

Gregory Lemkine is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Laboratoire WatchFrog. He has a thorough understanding of the technical, scientific side and the marketing of biotechnologies and completed a training/action cycle of HEC school of management. He also holds a PhD in Physiology with a specific interest on the role of hormones to determine neural stem cells.

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Melching-Kollmuss

Stephanie Melching-Kollmuss

BASF, Germany

Stephanie Melching-Kollmuss has been working in the field of regulatory toxicology for chemicals and plant protection products for over 20 years, for more than 15 years at BASF SE. Her special interest is in mixture toxicity and endocrine disruption. Stephanie was involved in two Cefic LRI projects: “Combined low-dose exposures to anti-androgenic substances” and “Developing a quantitative AOP for liver-mediated thyroid modulation after prenatal exposure to a xenobiotic compound in the rat”. Furthermore, she has been a member of the ECETOC low-dose interaction and the Thyroid Task Force, which she is chairing since 2020. Stephanie is also a member of endocrine expert groups within industry associations (e.g. Crop Life Europe) and is coordinating endocrine-related research activities and working on assessment strategies for endocrine disrupting compounds.

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O'Shaughnessy

Katherine O'Shaughnessy

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America

Katherine (Katie) O’Shaughnessy is an Investigator in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Research Triangle Park. She received her PhD from the University of Florida in Genetics and Genomics and was a postdoctoral fellow at the EPA before beginning her own laboratory at the Agency. Katie’s research programme focuses on how hypothesis driven research using next generation technologies can help answer complex questions related to women’s and children’s health. This includes understanding the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on organs like the brain, and identifying novel biomarkers to predict chemical toxicity.

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Rüegg

Joëlle Rüegg

Uppsala University, Sweden

Joëlle Rüegg is Professor in Environmental Toxicology at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research focuses on deciphering molecular mechanisms underlying developmental effects of endocrine disruptors. She is coordinator for the Horizon 2020 research and innovation action ENDpoiNTs and other national and international interdisciplinary projects.

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Terron

Andrea Terron

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Italy

Andrea Terron has a degree in Veterinary Medicine and a diploma in Toxicologic Pathology and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathology. He is Senior Scientific Officier in the Mammalian Toxicology Team within EFSA’s Pesticide Peer Review Unit. He is involved in activities regarding developmental neurotoxicity, neurotoxicity and assessment of endocrine disrupting properties for pesticide active substances and has an interest in the development and application of new alternative methodologies and their integration in the regulatory risk assessment.

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Wilks

Martin Wilks

Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology, Switzerland

Martin Wilks is a Medical Toxicologist and risk assessment expert with more than 30 years of experience in academia, industry and the health service. He is Director of the Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology (SCAHT) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Geneva and the University of Basel. He is a EUROTOX Registered Toxicologist, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Secretary-General of EUROTOX and President-elect of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX).

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Zhang

Fang Zhang

Syngenta, United Kingdom

Fang Zhang holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and gained four years of research experience at the Centre for Drug Safety Science at the University of Liverpool, developing in vitro hepatocytes models for predicting drug induced liver injury. She has two and a half years of experience as a senior scientist/study director for in vitro and in vivo toxicological studies at the CRO Concept Life Sciences. Her current role at Syngenta is to support agrochemical research and development activities and to provide expert mechanistic toxicology assistance to regulatory toxicology projects in Europe and around the world.

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Venue

Online Conference
This conference is going to be held online.
You can reach us directly at:
Phone : +49 231 75896-50
Email: info@akademie-fresenius.de
www.akademie-fresenius.de

Prices & Services

Participation Fee: € 995.00 plus VAT.

The registration fee includes the following benefits:

  • Participation in the Online Event
  • Event Documentation (available via download from our website)
  • Certificate of attendance

Representatives of an authority or a public university are therefore eligible for a reduced fee of € 495.00 plus VAT per person (please provide evidence). The reduced fee cannot be combined with other rebates.

Group Reductions
For joint bookings received from one company we grant a 15% discount from the third participant onwards.

Terms of Cancellation / Book without Risk
You can cancel your participation in our online events free of charge and without giving reasons in writing up to 1 week before the start of the event. In the case of later cancellations and non-login to the online event, no participation fees can be refunded.
In this case, however, you will receive access to the documentation after the event.
You can name a substitute participant free of charge at any time.

Claudia Werner

Your Contact

Claudia Werner
Programme and conceptual design

+49 231 75896-83
cwerner@akademie-fresenius.de

Claudia Werner

Your Contact

Claudia Werner
Programme and conceptual design

+49 231 75896-83
cwerner@akademie-fresenius.de

Claudia Werner

Your Contact

Claudia Werner
Programme and conceptual design

+49 231 75896-83
cwerner@akademie-fresenius.de

Danielle Sörries

Your Contact

Danielle Sörries
Organisation and participant management

+49 231 75896-74
dsoerries@akademie-fresenius.de

Danielle Sörries

Your Contact

Danielle Sörries
Organisation and participant management

+49 231 75896-74
dsoerries@akademie-fresenius.de

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Monika Stratmann

Monika Stratmann
Phone: +49 231 75896-48
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Katharina Geraridis

Katharina Geraridis
Phone: +49 231 75896-67
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