Participation in the workshop of the LIFE-COMBASE project and in the ESTIV2018 Congress

Throughout October we have had the opportunity to present our work in two events which took place in Italy and Germany respectively.

On one hand, our colleague Sergi Gómez lectured in Milan at the second workshop of the LIFE-COMBASE project, “The dialogue between general in silico models and the specific biocides case”. Sergi presented the seminar entitled “In silico Models for biocides towards algae and microorganisms”, in which he exhibited the recently developed ProtoQSAR’s models for the estimation of toxicity of biocidal products in the environment. These models are based on the previous assumption of a chemical space typical of biocides, determined from certain structural parameters characteristic of these compounds such as the number of atoms of phosphorus, chlorine and sulphur, or the global number of heteroatoms. After defining how our company managed to determine such chemical space, our collaborator presented the QSAR models of prediction in algae and bacteria. The preparation of these models was particularly complex given the lack of information necessary for their development, but we achieved highly satisfactory results, with a correct prediction percentage of more than 80% of the compounds used to validate the models.

On the other hand, our collaborator Elizabeth Goya has participated in the 20th international Congress organized by the European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV) which occurred in Berlin and that has counted this year with the support of German Toxicology Society and the Center Alternative to Animal Testing in Europe (CAAT-Europe). In the event were presented significant advances related to the field of “in vitro” toxicology, and additional meetings and exchanges between delegates of the participating entities were conducted. In a specific session devoted to computational methods, Elizabeth presented the seminar “Disruption of the estrogenic signalling by coactivator binding inhibitors: an in silico predictive approach”, during which she exhibited her work in predicting endocrine disruptive behaviour in the context of her participation in the “PROTECTED” project.