On 21st and 22nd June 2023 we participated in the “Course on in silico methods in the safety assessment of chemicals”. The course was conducted by QSAR Labs Ltd in the Gdansk Science and Technology Park on behalf of the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine.
During those two intense days, we were introduced to the ins and outs of risk assessment.
First day we got acquainted with findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) principles of data and groups of descriptors. During practical exercises we were learning how to apply chemical databases (PubChem and ChemiSpider) and calculate Lipski and 2D descriptors. After that, we verified our knowledge during exercises of both principal and hierarchical cluster analysis.
On the second day, we got to know QSAR/QSPR modeling and applied open-source tools to predict the toxicity of chemicals. Practical tasks required us to act quickly and thoroughly analyze the next steps.
Last but not least, we listened to valuable lecture professor Qasim Chaudhry from the University of Chester (UK), chair of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS), about the usage of in silico methods for regulatory risk assessment of chemicals.
New skills opened up new possibilities in our work. We hope that the other participants also came back home with their heads full of new ideas.
See you at the next events.
