ERGO was well represented at the largest meeting for environmental toxicologists and chemists in Europe, SETAC Europe 2024 in Seville, Spain. This year’s theme was “Science-Based Solutions in Times of Crisis: Integrating Science and Policy for Environmental Challenges”. In our post COVID pandemic world, there is demand for new science-based solutions to the challenges ahead. This includes new regulatory frameworks encouraging sustainable innovations in the chemical industry. Environmental science can contribute to tackling this challenge e.g., by realistic risk assessment of chemical pollution in soil and water, by determining the environmental safety of recycled materials and by evaluating the life cycle of new products and processes and their effects on ecosystem services. SETAC Europe is one of five Geographic Units (GU) of the global Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), established to promote and undertake activities of SETAC in Europe.
This year ERGO was represented by our partners from University of Southern Denmark (SDU), University of Antwerp (UA), University of Heidelberg (UHEI), Masaryk University (MU), L’Oréal (LOR), National Museum of Natural History (CNRS) and Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB). Partners showcased their results promoting ERGO and their research of endocrine disruptors and their effects, particularly the extrapolation of thyroid disrupting effects across vertebrate classes. Presentations on 8 May by ERGO partners included WP5 co-lead Lisa Baumann from UHEI/Vrije University with a presentation entitled ‘Comparison of different fish model species for the assessment of thyroid hormone system disruption’. Sina Volz from SDU presented ‘How to Assess Thyroid Hormone System Disruption in Zebrafish: A Case Study with Methimazole’ while fellow colleague Pernille Ambus Hansen presented ‘Bisphenols A alternatives alters Thyroid Hormone System (THS) sensitive endpoints in zebrafish – are they safer alternatives?’. This was followed by Werner Kloas from IGB with their presentation on ‘Amphibians Provide Unique and Sensitive Models in Ecotoxicology: Arguing for Advanced Propagation and Integration in Risk Assessment’. On 9 May, Ann-Cathrin Haigis from WP3 lead UA presented the presentation entitled ‘The Cross-Species Applicability of the Thyroid Hormone System Disruption (THSD) AOP Network and its Utilisation in Cross-species Extrapolations’. ERGO partners also had four poster presentations on display including:
- Advancing Thyroid Hormone Disruption Assessment: Integration of Adverse Outcome Pathway Network and Cross-Species Relevance of In Vitro Bioassays (Jiri Novak, Puja Kumari, Runze Liu, Veronika Janeckova, Tereza Nesporova and Klara Hilscherova (MU)); see abstract.
- AOP-Network: Investigation of a Crosstalk Between Retinoic Acid Signaling and Thyroid Hormone Signaling During Zebrafish Early Development (Audrey Phan, Adela Marterova, Aleksandra Sokolova and Klara Hilscherova (MU); Lisa Annie Baumann (UHEI/Vrije University)); see abstract.
- Identification of Molecular Markers on Zebrafish Embryo for Thyroid Disruption by Transcriptomic Analysis (Noémie de Crozé (LOR); Celia Marti Marti, Laurent Sachs and Nicolas Buisine (CNRS); see abstract.
- IATA development for the evaluation of thyroid hormone system disruption as part of the PARC partnership (Lucia Vergauwen, Ann-Cathrin Haigis and Dries Knapen (UA), Lola Bajard and Klára Hilšerová (MU), Arno C. Gutleb (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology), Ellen Hessel (RIVM), Henrik Holbech (SDU), Nafsika Papaioannou and Elisavet Renieri (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Alessandra Roncaglioni (Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri), Anita Sosnowska (QSAR Lab), Sabrina Tait (Instituto Superiore di Sanità) and Miriam Jacobs (UK Health Security Agency); see abstract.
SETAC Europe brings together about 2,600 participants from around 60 countries, with over 60 exhibition booths. The next SETAC Europe 35th Annual Meeting will take place 11–15 May 2025 in Vienna, Austria. To learn more about SETAC 2024 please visit here.
