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An integrated interdisciplinary approach to animal-free chemical and nanomaterial safety assessment

Project description

Safer chemicals without animal testing

Chemicals and manufactured nanomaterials (MNs) that may potentially harm humans are tested on animals. Despite noticeable improvements in this area, an integrated risk assessment platform is still lacking. The MSCA-funded in3 project aims to achieve animal-free chemical and NM safety assessment by combining human in-vitro testing with computational methods. The focus will be on multiplying induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and sending them to partner labs across Europe. iPSCs have the ability to develop into skin, nerve, muscle, or practically any other cell type relevant to the target organs or tissues where MN exposure occurs. Therefore, they can be used in MN research, eliminating the need for animal testing.

Objective

All chemicals whether they are drugs, cosmetics, agrochemicals or others need to be tested for their safety to man and the environment. The use of whole animal studies for the prediction of adverse effects in man, is problematic due to species dependent effects, high costs and a large burden to animals in terms of numbers and suffering. While there have been major improvements in human in vitro and in silico techniques, there is still a lack of an integrated risk assessment platform. The in3 proposal aims to significantly further the development of animal-free chemical and nanomaterial (NM) safety evaluation by creating a scientific and training program aimed at integrating human in vitro testing with computational approaches. The project will focus on human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) derived tissues, including liver, kidney, brain, lung and vasculature and to utilise mechanistic toxicology, quantitative adverse outcome pathways, biokinetics, cheminformatics and modelling approaches to derive testable prediction models. hiPSC present the major advantages provide non-cancerous derived tissues with identical genetic backgrounds. All Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) will work towards the same goal, utilising the same chemicals, donor cells, assays and software packages. All data will be centrally housed in standardised formats, appropriately annotated and linked with protocols and material information. While ESRs will hone their skills in their own field of expertise, they will also collaborate to create an in depth safety evaluation testing platform for the chosen test compounds. By interaction, problem solving, training and secondments over the three years, they will acquire a unique set of interdisciplinary skills for chemical and NM safety assessment. The project aims to accelerate the realisation of animal-free safety assessment and to graduate 15 PhD students with the ideal skill sets to carry out the strategy designed in in3 in the near future.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training Networks

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016

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Coordinator

STICHTING VU
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 510 748,56
Address
DE BOELELAAN 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
Netherlands

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 510 748,56

Participants (13)

Partners (5)

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