The congress of European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV) took place from 21st to 25th November 2022. This congress is focus on the alternative methods to animal testing, including both in silico and in vitro modeling.

After a nice opening ceremony with a flamenco show, the scientific program begun by a keynote lecture by Dr. Timothy Allen about the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning in the Chemical Risk Assessment. Then, the first session was focus on induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC)-derived models. It was also the topic of the oral presentation of our Project Leader in metabolic disease Dr. Méryl Roudaut, who presented a single procedure to generate functional hiPSCs-derived liver organoids – towards an innovative tools suitable for drug screening.

For the three next days, 2 sessions took place in parallel, allowing to address numerous challenges in in vitro toxicology. Among other, a session was focus on the toxicokinetics and in vitro – in vivo extrapolation. Of course, a session was dedicated to the challenges in cosmetics safety, because animal testing is now forbidden in cosmetic ingredient assessment from 2009. During this session, presentations addressed regulatory landscape, eye hazard identification, skin allergy and environmental safety assessment. Numerous presentations highlighted the challenge to develop reconstructed skin. This is also a challenge of HCS Pharma, because BIOMIMESYS® Skin development is ongoing!

Our project leader in pharmacology in vitro Dr. Véronique De Conto presented a poster about the influence of microenvironment on the SH-SY5Y neurotoxic response, during in the session “In vitro methods for safety testing of biopharmaceuticals/biotherapies/vaccines”. This poster presented BIOMIMESYS® Brain matrix, an organ-specific hyaluronic acid-based hydroscaffold™ which mimic the native Extracellular Matrix (ECM). It could be also an interesting tool to study developmental toxicity, the topic of the 7th session!

During all the congress, various in vitro 3D models were presented, highlighted that 3D is now widely accepted in in vitro research. An interested presentation by Dr. Marta Barenys mentioned the interactions between chemicals and the Extracellular Matrix, in particular the binding of chemicals to laminin. Although rarely discussed, this is important point to consider, because more and more studies highlight its essential role in health and diseases, though cell-matrix signaling and chemical-matrix interaction. We are confident that the perspective is now to consider the importance of microenvironment in the cell response to toxic compounds, for better in vitro toxicological predictions.

We thank to ESTIV organization committee for the opportunity to present our work, and we thank all the participants for these interesting presentations and rich discussions about in vitro model relevance!

Feel free to contact us if you want more information about BIOMIMESYS® matrix for toxicological assessment!


0 Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.