Characterization of occurrence, metabolism and contribution to human exposure of new chemical compounds present in the indoor environment.

With this proposal, we aim to enrich the fundamental knowledge related to the new chemicals that are present in and may affect the indoor environment and consequently, the resulting human exposure. Chemicals are typically used in various products due to their beneficial properties, e.g. flame retardants, plasticizers, etc. However, most of them leach into the indoor environment and may provoke health disorders (e.g. endocrine disruption). We aim at identifying new chemicals of concern and study their occurrence in the indoor environment. Furthermore, we will characterize their biotransformation in humans by in vitro experiments with human liver subcellular fractions. We will then assess for the first time the resulting human exposure to these chemicals by investigating human biological samples (urine and blood) for the presence of these chemicals or their metabolites. Resultingly, we will propose a range of new biomarkers of exposure to be used in future (biomonitoring) studies. The detection of the newly identified chemicals (and/or their metabolites) in human biological samples will confirm that exposure has occurred and will alert on the imperious investigation of other aspects, such as toxicity and possible health effects.

Keywords:INDOOR ENVIRONMENT, TOXICOLOGY

Disciplines:Biomarker discovery and evaluation, Drug discovery and development, Medicinal products, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacognosy and phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy, Toxicology and toxinology, Other pharmaceutical sciences

Project type:Collaboration project