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PROJECT PARTNERS

In the project the following centers experienced in alternative toxicity testing take part – NIOM – Coordinator  (Poland), VUB (Belgium), NILU (Norway) and UMIL (Italy).

Włochy

University of Milan, Milan, Italy

The laboratory of Toxicology was created in 1979 for studying toxicological problems concerning the safety of food additives and it is part of the Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences (DiSFeB) of the University of Milan. During the last decades, several topics of toxicological relevance have been studied (i.e. in vitro alternative methods as skin sensitization and skin toxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, genotoxicity). Overall, the main scientific interest of the laboratory is the study of the mechanism of action of toxic substances at molecular level and its relevance for human risk assessment. 

Identification of the mechanism of action of toxic substances at cellular and molecular level, allows a better extrapolation among species. 

The activity is focused on hazard identification/characterization, the qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the nature of the adverse effects associate with biological, chemical and physical agents through the identification and characterization of biochemical mechanisms involved in cell response to toxic agents, exploring molecular pathways – role of calcium, reactive oxygen species, inflammatory mediators, DNA damage and activation of gene transcription in the onset and maintenance of the damageThe research activities are focused on central nervous system, immune system and the possible interactions of chemicals with DNA and proteins; more recently a new research area on the toxicity of nanomaterial has been added.

To obtain these goals the tox lab developed and implemented several in vitro approaches mainly in the field of skin toxicity for the replacement of in vivo models. More recently the competences in immunotoxicity have been integrated with a genotoxic approach. The main techniques utilized are: – Comet test – Micronucleus test – Immune functional assays. i.e. proliferation, cytokine production – cytotoxicity, antibody production, etc. – Cell function analysis, i.e. cell viability, DNA damage – Protein synthesis and expression, mRNA expression, reactive oxygen, species generation – Western blot analysis, immunoenzymatic assays, i.e. ELISA – DNA macroarray The team members are: – 3 full time professors – 1 associate professor – 1 administrative staff – 2 junior researchers (PhD students) – 1 full time senior researcher (post-doc) – 1 full time researcher (post-doc)

The laboratory of Toxicology was created in 1979 for studying toxicological problems concerning the safety of food additives and it is part of the Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences (DiSFeB) of the University of Milan. During the last decades, several topics of toxicological relevance have been studied (i.e. in vitro alternative methods as skin sensitization and skin toxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, genotoxicity). Overall, the main scientific interest of the laboratory is the study of the mechanism of action of toxic substances at molecular level and its relevance for human risk assessment. Identification of the mechanism of action of toxic substances at cellular and molecular level, allows a better extrapolation among species. 

The activity is focused on hazard identification/characterization, the qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the nature of the adverse effects associate with biological, chemical and physical agents through the identification and characterization of biochemical mechanisms involved in cell response to toxic agents, exploring molecular pathways – role of calcium, reactive oxygen species, inflammatory mediators, DNA damage and activation of gene transcription in the onset and maintenance of the damage. The research activities are focused on central nervous system, immune system and the possible interactions of chemicals with DNA and proteins; more recently a new research area on the toxicity of nanomaterial has been added. To obtain these goals the tox lab developed and implemented several in vitro approaches mainly in the field of skin toxicity for the replacement of in vivo models. More recently the competences in immunotoxicity have been integrated with a genotoxic approach.

 The main techniques utilized are: 

  • Comet test
  • Micronucleus test
  • Immune functional assays. i.e. proliferation, cytokine production
  • cytotoxicity, antibody production, etc.
  • Cell function analysis, i.e. cell viability, DNA damage
  • Protein synthesis and expression, mRNA expression, reactive oxygen, species generation
  • Western blot analysis, immunoenzymatic assays, i.e. ELISA
  • DNA macroarray