Exhibitor-hosted session on March 11, 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m., SOT Annual Meeting 2024

Fraunhofer ITEM and SCAI are working on the integration of new approach methods in several projects. In this session, we present recent work on the ZET-O-MAP project, on which publicly available transcriptome data as well as morphological alterations from the zebra fish embryo assays were collected to identify spatio-temporal omic biomarker for teratogenicity. The project was performed in close cooperation with the Belgian research organization Vito.

Dr. Sylvia Escher, Dr. Marc Jacobs and Matthias Wehr will highlight some recent results from the project starting with the compilation of the zetera and zetomic databases, the identification of time dependent transcriptomic biomarker and their validation through RT-qPCR, the use of read-across approaches and finally the development of knowledge maps.

Dr. Sylvia Escher is head of the Department of In-silico Toxicology at Fraunhofer ITEM. The main focus of her work is on the improvement on chemical risk assessment methodologies. She is experienced in the integration of data and data mining using toxicological databases. She analyzed in-vivo animal data to gain further insights into regulatory questions like development of read-across approaches, TTC and extrapolation factors. In the ongoing NC3R project “virtual dog” as well as the recently finished eTRANSAFE project, her group is contributing to the development of virtual control groups. Further a special focus of her work is the replacement of in-vivo animal studies by new approach methods (NAM) starting with read-across approaches (EUTOXRISK, CEFIC LRI ZET-O-MAP and EXITOX) and in ongoing projects on ab initio risk assessments (RISK-HUNT3R, ZeroPM, PARC). The Department of In-silico Toxicology has a lot of expertise in transcriptome analyses and PBK modelling.
 

At SOT 2024 Dr. Sylvia Escher will also give the following lectures:

Symposium Sessions:

Integration of Metabolite Data into Read-Across Assessments
Session: New Approach Methodology and Kinetic Modeling Approaches to Support Read-Across; Talk 1111
Tuesday, March 12, 8:35 a.m. - 9:05 a.m., Grand Ballroom E‚ Salt Palace Convention Center

Modeling of Bioavailable Concentration of N-Nitrosamines Built via Endogenous Mechanisms
Session: Nitrosamines: Mechanistic Evidence to Support Subclasses with Varying Mutagenic Potency; Talk 1209
Tuesday, March 12, 4:50 p.m. - 5:10 p.m., Grand Ballroom A‚ Salt Palace Convention Center

Round table session:

Evaluation of Clinical Chemistry Parameters: Which Factors Have an Impact?
Session: Is Less More? Reduction of Animal Use through Virtual Control Groups
Wednesday, March 13, 11:25 noon - 11:35 a.m., Room 250 A‚ Salt Palace Convention Center
 

Dr. Sylvia Escher is also involved in the following poster discussions:
 

Mutamind: Benchmark Dose Modeling of N-Nitrosamines based on comet and enhanced Ames assay data

Poster 3106/P210; Session: Genotoxicity/DNA Repair
Monday, March 11, 2024, 11:45 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Authors: A. Londenberg, S. Chang, M. A. Djuari, K. P. Cross, G. Johnson, M. Schulz, C. Ziemann, and S. Escher

ZET-O-MAP: Identify molecular drivers of teratogenic toxicants in time-resolved NAM data

Poster 3848/P351; Session: Developmental and Juvenile Toxicology
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 11:45 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Authors: M. M. Wehr, B. Schultz, H. Witters, S. Remy, K. Hollanders, M. Jacobs, and S. Escher

Evaluating the deviation of the inhalTTC group's assessment on NOAEC/LOAEC values from those of the study authors

Poster 3617/P118; Session: Risk Assessment II
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 11:45 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Authors: M. Schwarz-Zocher, A. M. Api, K. Joshi, S. Collins, G. Patlewicz, A. M. Bowden, F. Boislève, M. Singal, A. Giusti, N. Sadekar, and S. E. Escher

Physiological based kinetic modelling to assess the distribution of nitrosamine formed under physiological conditions

Poster 4430/P218; Session: Mathematical Modeling
Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 2:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Authors: M. Spänig, M. Vogel, T. Hansen, U. Deppenmeier, and S. Escher

Dr. Marc Jacobs leads the Group on "Software and Scientific Computing" at Fraunhofer SCAI. Its focus is on the development of algorithms and software tools that facilitate the efficient discovery and exploration of knowledge from various freely available sources. The group aims to create complex knowledge graphs by automatically identifying and normalizing concepts and their relationships across different sources. They employ advanced AI techniques, such as LLMs, for semantic information extraction, concept detection (including synonyms and abbreviations), and relation mining using terminologies and ontologies. The collected knowledge is stored in federated graph databases or triple stores, enabling experts from various fields (e.g. biomedicine, pharmacy, chemistry, biotechnology, toxicology) to query it through web-based applets. This has been shown in international projects like open PHACTS, OpenRiskNet, Aetionomy, and COMMUTE. The group possesses extensive expertise in modern big data architectures, Semantic Web technology, and cutting-edge AI methods.

Matthias Wehr is leader of the ZET-O-MAP project and researcher in application of omics technologies for their application in next generation risk assessment. He is writing his doctoral thesis at Fraunhofer ITEM as part of the “Databases and QSAR” group. He is bioinformatician with experience in computational toxicology and handling of large datasets including extraction, transformation, analysis, and machine learning techniques using toxicological and transcriptomics data. Since 2019 he is actively working with omics data and integration of NAMs for regulatory application in the EUTOXRISK, ExITox II, RISK-HUNT3R, NAMS4NANO and CEFIC LRI ZET-O-MAP projects.
 

Matthias Wehr is also involved in the following poster discussions:
 

ZET-O-MAP: Identify molecular drivers of teratogenic toxicants in time-resolved NAM data

Poster 3848/P351; Session: Developmental and Juvenile Toxicology
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 11:45 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Authors: M. M. Wehr, B. Schultz, H. Witters, S. Remy, K. Hollanders, M. Jacobs, and S. Escher