Research
Toxicogenomics can be described as the field of science that deals with the collection, interpretation, and storage of information about genome-wide molecular profiles within particular cells or tissue of an organism in response to toxic substances. Toxicogenomics combines toxicology with high content molecular profiling technologies for (epi)genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Toxicogenomics research aims to elucidate molecular mechanisms involved in the expression of toxicity, and to derive molecular patterns (i.e. molecular biomarkers) that predict toxicity or the individual susceptibility to it.
Research within the Department of Toxicogenomics is focused on the application of existing and emerging omics-technologies, evaluating cellular responses at the level of gene expression (transcriptomics), gene expression regulations (epigenetics and microRNA analysis), the protein level (proteomics) or the level of the metabolome (metabolomics). In doing so, different platforms and technologies are being applied and compared, including microarray technologies and next generation sequencing. A significant part of ongoing projects aims to optimise and integrate their application to human cellular models, for developing in vitro assays for toxicity prediction. The ultimate aim of projects like CarcinoGENOMICS, DETECTIVE, DiXa or research activities in the context of the Netherlands Toxicogenomics Centre (NTC) is the development of alternatives to animal testing for the toxicological evaluation of substances. More detailed descriptions of these projects can be found below. more info
A second line of research activities within the Department is focussing on the development of omics based biomarkers (e.g. protein-, metabolic- and gene expression profiles) to be applied in translational studies, specifically focusing on toxicological risk evaluation of dietary and environmental exposures and risk-benefit analysis. The nature and complexity of the data (in volume and variability) demands highly developed processes of automated handling, storage and data analysis. Therefore, a data storage and analysis infrastructure has been built which will be used by a growing team of bioinformaticians. The Department specifically aims to develop and implement relevant bioinformatics and biostatistical approaches, in order to retrieve the maximal amount of toxicological information generated through the omics-based studies. more info
Projects
BReIN — read more »
CEFIC LRI C4 – Towards the development of an omics data analysis framework (ODAF) for regulatory application— read more »
CIN - Brain miRNA’s as markers of drug induced changes in neural integrityTesting mechanistic and placebo-controlled studies in which we will administer a psychedelic drug (i.e. psilocybin) that is known to affect neural integrity — read more »
Enhanced cross-omics visualizations in toxicogenomics— read more »
EU FP7 - TransQSTTranslational quantitative systems toxicology to improve the understanding of the safety of medicines — read more »
EU H2020 - EUToxRiskAnimal-free hazard and risk assessment of chemicals — read more »
EU H2020 - OpenRiskNetOpen e-Infrastructure to Support Data Sharing, Knowledge Integration and in silico Analysis and Modelling in Risk Assessment — read more »
H2020 SCREENEDSCREENED aims to develop three-dimensional (3D) cell-based in vitro tests to better characterize the effects of endocrine disruptors on thyroid gland function. — read more »
Immunotoxicity of biotargeted nanomedicinesMethods and criteria for evaluating potential immunotoxicity of biotargeted nanomedicines — read more »
INTERREG VLA-NED HerinneringenTowards an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimers Disease (AD) — read more »
MiFood - Personalized NutritionEvaluation of personalized preventive strategies based on synergistic effects between vioactive compounds present in fruits and vegetables — read more »
NWO Complexity "Complex Systems Framework for Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)— read more »
APAP induced liver injury (DILI) finalizedDrug Induced Liver Injuries: Studying the underlying mechanisms — read more »
BaP finalizedBaP-induced hepatocarcinogenesis — read more »
BE BASIC finalizedBiobased solutions for a sustainable society — read more »
CEFIC DECO finalizedData-integration for Endpoints, Chemoinformatics and Omics — read more »
Collaboration UM and LCSB finalizedAnalysis of Environmental-Genome Interactions in the development of neurodegenerative diseases — read more »
EU FP7 - Detective finalizedDetection of endpoints and biomarkers of repeated dose toxicity using in vitro systems — read more »
EU FP7 - diXa finalizedData Infrastructure for Chemical Safety — read more »
EU FP7 - EnviroGenomarkers finalizedGenomics biomarkers of environmental health — read more »
EU FP7 - Exposomics finalized— read more »
EU FP7 - HeCaToS finalizedHepatic and Cardiac Toxicity Systems modelling — read more »
EU FP7 - iCORDI finalizedInternational Collaboration on Research Data Infrastructure — read more »
EU FP7 - PHYTOME finalizedPhytochemicals to reduce nitrite in meat products — read more »
Hepatocarcinogenesis finalizedGene expression profiling of oxidative genotoxic compounds in hepatocarcinogenesis — read more »
MeDIP seq finalizedMethylated DNA Immunoprecipitation Sequencing — read more »
miRNAno finalizedToxicogenomic studies on engineered carbon nanomaterials — read more »
NGI - Netherlands Toxicogenomics Centre (NTC) finalizedAn applied system biology approach to predict chemical safety — read more »
ZonMW - ASAT2 finalizedSystems toxicology supported data infrastructure for human risk assessment — read more »