L’Oréal (LOR)

LOR is among the world’s largest cosmetics companies and has developed activities in the field of cosmetics, concentrating on hair colour, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfume and hair care. LOR has a long-standing commitment in researching and developing alternatives to animal testing for human and environmental safety assessment of chemicals and mixtures. L’OREAL launched its “Sharing Beauty with All’ global sustainability program in 2013, setting out its 2020 objectives to reduce its environmental footprint, strengthen its positive social impacts and transform its operations and manufacturing activities. Since its creation in 1995, LOR’s Environmental Research Department has been working on method developments to assess the impact of cosmetic products on wildlife and ecosystems. This department is organized around two main sectors:

– The predictive environmental assessment pole, which evaluates the environmental impact of the products developed by the LOR Group, in particular by analysing their life cycle and their water footprint (combining products aquatic toxicity and biodegradability).

– The Eco-models pole, which develops and carries out ecotoxicity tests on different aquatic species representative of soft and marine water food chains: bacteria, microalgae, invertebrates and fish embryos. Some of these organisms (fish embryos in particular) are also studied as a predictive models of human toxicity and/or pharmacology or biological modelling.

Marc has a PhD in veterinary medicine and head of the LOR Environmental Research Department. It has facilities for fish embryo testing with automated morphology and behaviour assessment. This group currently consists of five senior researchers, three research engineers, one PhD student and four technicians. Marc has a long-standing commitment to the development of alternative methods in ecotoxicology and the development of the fish embryo model in human toxicology and pharmacology screening. He was the French representative at the OECD ad hoc experts’ group on the fish embryo test leading to OECD TG 236. He co-organises with UFZ a biennial international symposium on the “Fish & amphibian embryo models in Toxicology and Teratology” at LOR facilities in Aulnay sous bois (France). Marc contributes to WP1, WP2, WP7 and WP8. He will provide inputs regarding fish embryo alternative test in environmental toxicity assessment in WP2 and WP7 and in public outreach in WP8.

Noémie is a senior scientist with a Phd in developmental biology. Noémie is a member of the European Teratology Society working group on the fish embryo model. At LOR she is in charge of developing the fish embryo model (Zebrafish and Medaka) for its application to ecotoxicology, and human toxicology and pharmacology screening of chemicals. Noémie is head of a team of one research engineer, one PhD student and one technician. Noémie contributes to WP1, WP2, WP5, WP7 and WP8. She will coordinate the input of LOR to the ERGO project regarding fish embryo alternative testing. She will contribute with histological evaluations of thyroid disrupting effects in fish in WP5 and WP7. She will contribute to scientific papers writing and scientific communication in WP8.