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Environmental Health Sciences

Head
Emilio
Benfenati
Researcher
Dipartimento di Ricerca Ambiente e Salute
emilio.benfenati@marionegri.it
Staff
Deborah
Merlin
Assistant
Dipartimento di Ricerca Ambiente e Salute
deborah.merlin@marionegri.it
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.
  • 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

  • Proteomics studies based on the combination of biochemical techniques, mass spectrometry and bioinformatics tools
  • 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

PARC – Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals.

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: In silico toxic effect modeling, wastewater monitoring and risk assessment

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sOFT-ERA - Strengthen OpenFoodTox development for the Evaluation and Risk Assessment of substances

Sponsor: European Food Safety Authority

Area of Research: Risk assessment, database

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PollinERA – Understanding pesticide-Pollinator interactions to support EU Environmental Risk Assessment and policy

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: In silico modelling of effects on pollinators

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ALTERNATIVE. Building the Innovative Platform for Detecting the Cardiotoxicity of Chemicals

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: In silico toxic effect modelling and risk assessment



nPETS - Nanoparticle emissions from the transport sectors

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: Nanoparticulates and traffic risk assessment

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ONTOX - Ontology-driven and artificial intelligence- of based repeated dose toxicity testing chemicals for next generation risk assessment

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: Alternative methods of assessing organo specific toxicity (liver, kidney and central nervous system)

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PREMIER - Prioritisation and Risk Evaluation of Medicines in the EnviRonment

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: Ecotoxicological impact of drugs in the environment

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OBERON - An iterative strategy of testing systems for identification of EDs related to metabolic disorders

Sponsor: European Commission

Area of Research: Impact of endocrine disrupters on health

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

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Laboratori Collegati

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