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Environmental Health Sciences

Head
Emilio
Benfenati
Researcher
Dipartimento di Ricerca Ambiente e Salute
emilio.benfenati@marionegri.it
Staff
No items found.
Senior Advisor
No items found.

The Department of Environment and Health Sciences aims to identify and prevent the negative effect of environmental factors on health.

In particular,it aims to verify the exposure of the population to chemical substances and to assess its risk using in silico and in vitro toxicity studies, analyticalt echniques of mass spectrometry and epidemiology. Furthermore, the effects of drugs diffused in the environment and the consumption of drugs of abuse are also analyzed, through their identification and their measurement in urban wastewater.


ObJECTIVES

  • Identify and measure environmental factors to prevent their impact on health. Among main risk factors causing the development of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, we find exposure to tobacco smoke, chemicals, alcohol and specific nutrients
  • Study molecular mechanisms which cause human diseases through the identification of proteome and metabolome alterations, induced by pathological states
  • Development of in silico and in vitro models for the toxicological and ecotoxicological risk assessment of chemical substances.
  • Perform neurotoxicity studies about environmental pollutants and substances which could interfere with endocrine system in in vitro models, based on the differentiation of induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS) of human origin towards a neuronal phenotype.
  • Development of new applications of the "wastewater-based epidemiology", a methodology that allows to study the consumption of drugs of abuse, nicotine, alcohol, drugs and specific metabolic markers, indicators of the population health status, measuring them directly in urban wastewater.
  • Development of advanced techniques of mass spectrometry (imaging) to study anticancer drugs penetration into tumor xenografts.

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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES

  • Surveys representing of the Italian and European adult population
  • Case-control studies to analyze the association between certain factors and the risk of selected chronic diseases, including tinnitus
  • Prospective studies about new generation tobacco products
  • Systematic reviews of the literature
  • Proteomics studies based on the combination of biochemical techniques, mass spectrometry and bioinformatics tools
  • Development of in vitro models of neural and glial cells, derived from iPS of human origin
  • Evaluation of ecotoxicological risk of pesticides
  • Extraction and purification techniques and chemical analysis of biological samples and aqueous matrices
  • Mass spectrometry techniques for liquid chromatography (tandem instrumentation with triple quadrupoles, high resolution instruments Orbitrap, Q-TOF, Q Exactive)
  • Models for the assessment of pollutants exposure and for dose-effect relationships studies
  • Multivariate statistics techniques for identifying the origin of pollutants
  • Systematic literature reviews and meta-analytical techniques for assessing the quality of scientific evidence
  • Methods for develop a list of priority of contaminants
  • Development of in silico models for the toxicological and ecotoxicological risk assessment of chemical substances
  • Development of instrumental approaches for a rapid and objective classification of tissues
  • Development of MS imaging techniques for quantitative studies of drug/metabolite distribution in biological tissues
  • Development, application and integration of different types of omics- data (proteomics,metabolomics) as a multiscale approach, which offers an integrated view of the functional state of a cell or of a pathological state in humans
Results
  • Elaboration of a new method which measure the consumption of drugs and chemicals by the population through the urban wastewater analysis, method now used internationally.
  • Definition of the relationship between air pollution and the use of bronchodilator drugs.
  • Development of algorithms used to predict the toxicity of chemical compounds used today by the main regulatory authorities.
  • Development of methods for reducing the impact of pollution, associated with the emission of nanoparticles.
  • Mitigation of the toxic effects of cosmetic products by introducing safer ingredients.
  • Substitution strategies for polluting perfluorinated substances.
Current projects

Welfare regionale lombardo a tutela degli anziani e dei pazienti cronici: impatto dell’emergenza COVID-19

Sponsor: Regione Lombardia

Research area: Covid-19

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UNITI - Unification of treatments and Interventions for Tinnitus patients

Sponsor: Commissione Europea

Research area: Tinnitus

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Forme AvaNzate di Gestione dei fanghi di depurazione in un Hub Innovativo lombardo (FANGHI)

Sponsor: Regione Lombardia

Research area: Health impact assessment

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Progetti di Rete IRCCS - Rete IRCCS di Neuroscienze e Neuroriabilitazione - RBD-BIO-RIN: Studio multicentrico per l’individuazione di possibili BIOmarkers diagnostici e/o di progressione e/o di outcome per il disordine comportamentale in sonno REM (RBD)

Sponsor: Ministero della Salute, DG Ricerca e Innovazione in Sanità

Research area: Sleep disturbances, biomarkers neurological diseases

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LIFE VERMEER - Integrating VEGA, toxRead, MERLIN-Expo, and ERICA in a platform for risk assessment and substitution of risky substance www.life-vermeer.eu

Sponsor: Commissione Europea - LIFE

Research area: Substitution of substances of concern

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JATC - Joint Action on Tobacco Control

Sponsor: Commissione Europea - DG Salute

Research area: Tobacco control

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LIFE CONCERT REACH - Concerting experimental data and in silico models for REACH www.life-concertreach.eu

Spnsor: Commissione Europea - LIFE

Research area: Substitution of substances of concern

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ERANET - GENDER-NET JTC - 2018 - TIGER - The combined role of genetic and environmental risk factors in the gender-specific development of severe tinnitus

Sponsor: Ministero della Salute, DG Ricerca e Innovazione in Sanità

Research area: Tinnitus

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OBERON - An integrative strategy of testing systems for identification of endocrine disruptors https://oberon-4eu.com/

Sponsor: Commissione Europea

Research area: Endocrine disruptors

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Ricerca Finalizzata - RF-2018-12367150 - Development of a new diagnostic tool based on tumor-associated macrophages to refine the prognosis of patients undergoing hepatic resection for colorectal liver metastases: a prospective study

Sponsor: Ministero della Salute, DG Ricerca e Innovazione in Sanità

Research area: Lung cancer

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EuSeMe - Europe-wide Sewage analysis to Monitor Emerging drug problems www.euseme.eu

Sponsor: Commissione Europea - DG Home

Research area: Monitoring the use of drugs and psychoactive substances

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EU-ToxRisk - An Integrated European "Flagship" Programme Driving Mechanism-based Toxicity Testing and Risk Assessment for the 21st century http://www.eu-toxrisk.eu/

Sponsor: Commissione Europea

Research area:  Toxicology

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ESIT - European School for Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research

Sponsor: Commissione Europea - MSCA-ITN

Research area: Tinnitus

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in3 - An Integrated Interdisciplinary approach to animal-free nanomaterial and chemical assessment https://www.estiv.org/in3/

Sponsor: Commissione Europea - MSCA-ITN

Research area: Toxicology

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OptiTox - Furtherdevelopment and update of EFSA’s Chemical Hazards

Sponsor: European Food Safety Authority

Research area: Evaluation of toxic substances for food

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PREMIER - Prioritisationand Risk Evaluation of Medicines in the EnviRonment

Sponsor: Commissione Europea - IMI

Research area: Toxicity and ecotoxicity of drugs

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AIDD - Advancemachine learning for Innovative Drug Discovery

Sponsor: Commissione Europea

Research area: Use of artificial intelligence for drug development

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Acque Reflue - Misura del consumo di nuove sostanze psicoattive (NSP) e altre sostanze stupefacenti maggiori nella popolazione mediante analisi delle acque reflue. Rete di rilevamento nazionale

Sponsor: Dipartimento Politiche Antidroga, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri

Research area: Studio del consumo di sostanze psicoattive in Italia

 

Antibiotici nei fiumi - studio sulla presenza di antibiotici ed altri farmaci per uso zootecnico nelle acque dei fiumi in Lombardia

Sponsor: Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente – Regione Lombardia

Research area: Inquinamento ambientale - Resistenza agli antibiotici

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Thermally induced contaminants in palm oil and other edible fats and derivative products: their occurrence in food and health risk assessment for Italian consumers

Sponsor: Ministero della Salute

Research area: Malattie Ambientali

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Head
Emilio
Benfenati
Researcher
Dipartimento di Ricerca Ambiente e Salute
emilio.benfenati@marionegri.it
Staff
No items found.
Senior Advisor
No items found.

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Laboratori Collegati

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