Endocrine Disruptors

Jürgen Arning holds a PhD in Biochemistry and works as a Regulatory Scientist at the German Federal Environment Agency. His main tasks comprise the identification and evaluation of endocrine disruptors in the environment under the REACH framework. Additionally, he is involved in initiating risk management measures for environmental ED and in accompanying scientific research projects. Since 2015 he has been a member of the ECHA Endocrine Disruptors Expert Group.

Arianna Bassan is a consultant and European Registered Toxicologist (ERT) with a multidisciplinary background in chemistry, biology, and toxicology. As co-founder of Innovatune, she specializes in human health hazard assessment integrating  (Q)SAR, read-across, and computational methods. She has led international groups on in silico toxicology and is now extending this work to AI-based toxicological risk assessment. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and reports.

Denise Bloch heads the Junior Research Group “New Approach Methodology (NAM)-based assessment of mixtures” at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). Her research is focused on improving the human health risk assessment of mixtures by the application of alternatives to animal testing. In the past, she has worked as a regulator in the zonal authorisation of plant protection products at BfR (DE), conducted research on active transport inhibition at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig (DE) and has studied biogeochemistry at ETH Zurich (CH).

Pierre-François Chaton is Deputy Head of the Ecotoxicology and Environmental Fate Unit and a Senior Risk Assessor in ecotoxicology at the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES). He has more than 18 years of experience in regulatory risk assessment of plant protection products, including method development.

ZhiChao Dang is EU Registered Toxicologist and Senior Risk Assessor and Project Coordinator at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). He has an extensive track record in laboratory work focusing on endocrine regulation in animals and in regulating endocrine disruptors. His PhD study centred on the stress response in fish. Subsequently, he conducted research on phytoestrogens and metabolic diseases such as osteoporosis, obesity and diabetes, employing in vitro cell culture, molecular techniques and mammalian models at the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases in Leiden University Medical Center. Over the past two decades, he has been actively involved in developing test methods, testing strategy and risk assessment of chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals. He has served as a member of expert groups for several international organisations including OECD EDTA AG, OECD VMG Eco, OECD VMG NA, EU ED EAG, ECHA PEG for CLP, and EFSA EDEG. Additionally, he has contributed to discussions in the ECHA EDEG and BPC EG, providing input on guidance documents and on identification of endocrine disruptors.

Chad Deisenroth holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology and joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2016 as a Cell Biologist in the Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure. He leads a research team focused on developing in vitro methods for high-throughput screening and complex culture models with an emphasis on endocrine toxicity, xenobiotic metabolism, and developmental toxicity. Previously, he was a Principal Investigator at the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences where he developed complex culture models and methods for evaluating metabolic disease and liver carcinogenesis. He has a particular interest in developing new approach methods to replace animal testing and is a member of the OECD Thyroid Disruption Methods Expert Group.

Valery E. Forbes has been Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University since 2022. Previously, she served as Dean of the College of Biological Sciences at University of Minnesota, Director of the School of Biological Sciences at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Founding Head of the Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change at Roskilde University in Denmark. Her specific research topics include population ecology and modelling, fate and effects of toxic chemicals in sediments, and ecological risk assessment. She was work package leader of the EU Marie Curie Training Programme on mechanistic effect modelling (CREAM) from 2009 to 2014 and has served on the Danish Natural Sciences Research Council, the European Research Council, NATO’s Environmental Security Panel, and as ad hoc reviewer for numerous funding agencies from various countries.

Karma Fussell holds a PhD in Toxicology and joined Wella Company in 2024 as a Senior Principal Toxicologist responsible for the safety of the hair dye portfolio.  She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, with more than 10 years of experience developing methods, conducting studies and assessing safety, especially for endocrine active substances. Before joining Wella, Karma worked on ED topics for the food, plant protection and chemical industries and has participated in several international product safety groups. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and reports.

Jorke Kamstra is Associate Professor of Toxicology at Utrecht University, where he leads the Endocrine Toxicology group. His research focuses on molecular mechanisms of endocrine and metabolism disrupting chemicals, the development of in vitro assays and zebrafish models, and their application in next-generation risk assessment. He is actively involved in several European research consortia and in the validation of new test methods for regulatory use.

Laurent Lagadic has been working in the Environmental Safety Division of Bayer CropScience in Germany for over 10 years. He currently leads the development and application of testing strategies for evaluating potential endocrine disrupting properties of pesticides and biocides for the environment. He holds a PhD in fundamental and environmental toxicology and has previously worked as an Aquatic Ecotoxicologist at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) for over 20 years.

Emily McVey is an experienced Regulatory Toxicologist and works at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment – RIVM. Her specialties include environmental toxicology, wild vertebrates (birds, mammals, amphibians, fish), molecular mechanisms of toxicity, neurodevelopmental toxicity and endocrine disruption testing and assessment.

Kirsi Myöhänen is a Scientific Officer Unit (C1 Classification) of the European Chemicals Agency ECHA. A toxicologist (PhD Pharm, MSC Pharm, and MSC Tox, European Registered Toxicologist) by trainings, she has been working in ECHA Classification unit from 2012, in ECHA Biocides unit in 2013-2019 with biocidal active substance approval and since 2019 again in classification, where she has also been involved in developing classification criteria for EDs. Kirsi is also a co-chair of the ECHA Endocrine Disruptor Expert Group (ED EG). She has previously worked as Senior Adviser at the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency involved also in developing ED criteria for biocides and PPPs.

Anette Thiel is a Food Chemist and acquired her PhD in toxicology/endocrine disruption from the University of Kaiserslautern on the influence of metabolism on endocrine activity. She is Eurotox Registered Toxicologist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology and specialized in ED assessments. Anette has more than 20 years of experience in toxicology in industry and consulting. Before joining Ramboll - SCC in September 2020 as a group leader for Human Health Risk Assessment and Toxicology topics for biocides, she worked for DSM Nutritional Products in Switzerland being responsible for ED topics.

Nikolay Kirilov Tzvetkov holds two Master's degrees from Sofia University in Biochemistry and Genetic and Cell Engineering and has been working as a Policy Officer for the Pesticides and Biocides Unit at DG SANTE since 2021. Previously, he worked as a Policy Officer in the Biodiversity Unit at Bulgaria's Ministry of Environment and Water and as a Research Scientist at institutions in Germany and Japan. 

Markus Wahl (PhD) studied biology with a focus on molecular plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular cell biology. He is a registered Toxicologist (DGPT, ERT) and has been working for BASF since 2008, currently as an Expert in Global Regulatory Affairs for Aroma Ingredients.

Lennart Weltje holds a PhD in ecotoxicology and environmental chemistry and currently works as a Senior Ecotoxicologist at BASF conducting risk assessments for PPPs and biocides. He is also an honorary Professor at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Georg-August University in Goettingen. His former stations include the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

Torben Österlund joined Pepper in July 2024 as Chief Scientific Officer with responsibilities for all scientific aspects of method validation. Pepper pools public and private resources to organizes validation of bioassays bridging the gap between academic research and regulatory science. Torben has for 3 decades worked in academia, biotech and pharma based in bioassays for research, chemical efficacy and safety/toxicology. He has strong experience with early pharmaceutical discovery and safety sciences, and recently worked with new approach methods (NAMs) in different areas of toxicology.