Nowadays, the increasing awareness of environmental safety, the impact of climate change, the increasing demand of alternative antimicrobial and antiparasitic drugs (green pharmacology), as well as the interest toward re-using food wastes and food chain by-products, in accordance to the circular economy approach, represent a challenge for pharmaco-toxicologists. Indeed, a more in depth and exhaustive characterization of the overall molecular effects of xenobiotics (e.g., drugs, dietary constituents, environmental pollutants and food contaminants) in animals and humans is required. To fulfil such a challenging issue, pharmaco-toxicologists might count on conventional (e.g., primary and established cell lines) and innovative in vitro models (i.e., engineered cell lines and 3D models). Furthermore, -omic tools are nowadays considered as platforms to drive hypothesis-based investigations for a better understanding of mechanistic pharmaco-toxicology.

The present research topic, coupling conventional and new in vitro models with -omic tools and bioinformatics, aims at deepening

1. the mechanistic toxicology of xenobiotics (e.g., natural toxins);
2. the safety of alternative drugs (e.g., essential oils, plant extracts);
3. the modulatory effects of food additives and food chain by-products (e.g., polyphenols).

The use of genetically modified cell lines to confirm the role of specific genes in the manifestation of the pharmacological effect or toxicity is also envisaged.

Five publications related to the Research Topic for the candidate interview:

1. Gabriel, V., Zdyrski, C., Sahoo, D.K., Ralston, A., Wickham, H., Bourgois-Mochel, A., Ahmed, B., Merodio, M.M., Paukner, K., Piñeyro, P., Kopper, J., Rowe, E.W., Smith, J.D., Meyerholz, D., Kol, A., Viall, A., Elbadawy, M., Mochel, J.P., Allenspach, K. Adult Animal Stem Cell-Derived Organoids in Biomedical Research and the One Health Paradigm. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2024, 25(2), 701. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25020701
2. Mitchell, J., Sutton, K., Elango, J.N., Borowska, D., Perry, F., Lahaye, L., Santin, E., Arsenault, R.J., Vervelde, L. Chicken intestinal organoids: a novel method to measure the mode of action of feed additives. Frontiers in Immunology, 2024, 15, 1368545. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1368545
3. Wuerger, L.T.D., Sprenger, H., Krasikova, K., Templin, M., Stahl, A., Herfurth, U.M., Sieg, H., Braeuning, A. A multi‐omics approach to elucidate okadaic acid‐induced changes in human HepaRG hepatocarcinoma cells. Archives of Toxicology, 2024, 98, 2919–2935. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-024-03796-1
4. Meier, M.J., Harrill, J., Johnson, K., Thomas, R.S., Tong, W., Rager, J.E., Yauk, C.L. Progress in toxicogenomics to protect human health. Nature Reviews Genetics, 2025, 26(2), 105-122. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-024-00767-1
5. Chen, M., Wen, J., Qiu, Y., Gao, X., Zhang, J., Lin, Y., Wu, Z., Lin, X., Zhu, A. Combining Multiple Omics with Molecular Dynamics Reveals SCP2-Mediated Cytotoxicity Effects of Aflatoxin B1 in SW480 Cells. Toxins (Basel), 2024, 16(9),375. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16090375

Tutor: Prof. Mery Giantin
mail: mery.giantin@unipd.it