Presenter: Prof. Dr. Bob van de Water (Leiden University) and Dr. Giulia Callegaro (Leiden University)

Aim: To teach participants the state-of-the art in advanced high throughput imaging and transcriptomics methods to uncover hazards for human safety assessment.

Overview/Content: The enormous number of chemicals that lack safety assessment requires fast, efficient, robust and cost effective methods to characterize potential hazards. Current understanding of human biology, mechanistic understanding of toxicity, advanced human test systems and innovative technologies including genome engineering, imaging technology and transcriptomics analysis and interpretation, now allows for this requirement and facilitate future Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA). We will introduce how mechanistic knowledge allows identification of biomarkers of toxicity and how these can be integrated in novel fluorescent reporter assays using advanced genome engineering technologies and applied in combination with automated live cell imaging to uncover chemical safety liabilities. Moreover, we will describe the application of high throughput transcriptomics using targeted RNA sequencing technologies and how this technology in combination with advanced human in vitro test systems can contribute to mechanism-based hazard characterization and support NGRA.

Method: After an introduction of the application of high throughput microscopy and reporter technology as well as high throughput transcriptomics-based approaches for hazard charactierzation, the participants will use a toxicogenomics dataset in combination with an intuitive toxicogenomics interpretation tool to qualify and quantify the mode-of-action of several selected chemicals.

Outcome: At the end of the workshop the participants will have insight how advanced mechanism-based screening methods based on high throughput imaging and transcriptomics can facilitate the characterization of hazards for safety assessment and be integrated in mechanism-based NGRA.