Horizon2020 grant for toxicologist Bob van de Water
An international research consortium led by Bob van de Water, Professor of Toxicology at Leiden University, has been awarded a prestigious Horizon2020 grant of 30 million euros.
Predicting the harmfulness of chemicals
Van de Water is coordinating the EU programme ‘EU-ToxRisk’, which numbers 39 participants, one of them the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Institute of Biology of Leiden (IBL). The LACDR and the Institute of Biology (IBL) will receive more than 4.5 million euros of the total EU-ToxRisk project budget for their research. The consortium will be using the Horizon2020 grant to go in search of more efficient, animal-friendly methods to establish the potential harmfulness of substances and make improved predictions of safety for humans.
Human cells and zebrafish embryos
Van de Water is working together with Herman Spaink and Annemarie Meijer's research teams, from the Animal Sciences and Health department of the IBL. They are focusing on quantifying and modelling the physiological disturbances that chemicals cause at the level of individual cells. Van de Water and his colleagues use human cells as well as zebrafish embryo models with fluorescent protein ‘reporters’. These reporters light up in cells when harmful reactions occur. This can be analysed using advanced light-microscopic techniques and image analysis. The work will be carried out at the Leiden Cell Observatory..
(12 oktober 2015 - CR)