EDCMET team
Get to know some of the EDCMET team members!
Brecht Attema | Wageningen University & Research
“I work on development of in vivo animal models in order to investigate metabolic effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Currently, we work on optimizing these models to get a thorough understanding of pathways at play in development of metabolic disease. Practical laboratory work provides more hands-on knowledge on the effects of EDCs and I am confident that by this we will contribute to an increased understanding of these compounds on metabolic health.”
Rinie van Beuningen | PamGene
”I am the leader of the in vitro work package, which is an exciting task to unite science and scientists to develop better tools to study and predict effects chemicals affecting metabolic diseases. My company supports the EDCMET project with microarray-based nuclear receptor screening assays.”
Thomas Darde | Eurosafe
”I joined EDCMET to coordinate and perform transcriptomics analysis on the HepaRG cell line after exposure to EDCs. I’m excited to be part of this project and work with outstanding partners to increase our understanding on EDCs’ mechanism of action.”
Kristin Fritsche | German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
“I am coordinating and performing reporter gene- and metabolic in vitro assays to assess the activation of nuclear receptors by EDCs and their potential to induce accumulation of triglycerides. I am happy to be part of an international team aiming to improve the identification of metabolic effects of EDCs.”
Arindam Ghosh | University of Eastern Finland
”I am a Junior Researcher within the in silico work package. My work involves the analysis of omics data to understand the mechanism of action of EDCs. Together with other EDCMET researchers, I hope we will be able to put in place a method for the prediction of chemical toxicity and also tell how it acts.”
Henriikka Hakomäki | University of Eastern Finland
”I joined the EDCMET in vivo team as a postdoctoral researcher with a strong background in pharmacology and toxicology. I feel privileged to be able to put my knowledge and skills to good use while working alongside with my talented colleagues. We all work to better our understanding of chemical induced metabolic disruption.”
Maija Hartikainen | University of Eastern Finland
“I support the implementation of the project. My work is about schedules, meetings, guidance, reporting and liaison. At the moment, I am especially inspired by the many ways to communicate about projects. It motivates me that the project will have significant impact on health and well-being of people in EU and globally.”
Viivi Jalava | University of Eastern Finland
”I study environmental sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. I am curious about environmental health. I am excited about the opportunity to work as a trainee in EDCMET and study adverse EDC effects on mitochondrial function and gene expression in cell models.”
Jenni Küblbeck | University of Eastern Finland
”I work as an in vitro assay development researcher and as the Scientific Manager of the project. I am excited to collaborate with the multidisciplinary and international team of EDCMET as well as with other EURION cluster projects and to develop novel methods for EDC research.”
Anna-Liisa Levonen | University of Eastern Finland
“I am the coordinator of the EDCMET project. My challenging yet rewarding task is to try to facilitate partners with diverse scientific backgrounds to effectively communicate with one another. In addition, my group works on improving in vitro and in vivo assays for EDC research.”
Raghavendra Mysore | University of Eastern Finland
”I am a postdoctoral researcher studying the effects of EDCs on human health. With the help of several cutting-edge omics methods I aim to unravel the mode of action of EDCs in human cell culture. I am excited to work with other EDCMET researchers to develop new approaches to screen potential EDCs.”
Jonna Niskanen | University of Eastern Finland
”I’m a project scientist and currently working on optimizing and validating a reporter gene assay. It’s a tool to visualize if chemicals are activating nuclear receptors and thus interrupting our normal cellular communication. I hope this tool will play a part in creating a chemically safer future for us all.”
Petr Pávek | Charles University
“My group is studying the effects of nuclear receptor modulating xenobiotics on metabolism by using cellular hepatic assays and humanized animal models. Our research could help in identifying xenobiotics with endocrine disrupting properties.”
Antti Poso | University of Tübingen
”My group is working in the field of atom scale molecular dynamics simulations of nuclear receptors. We aim to understand how different chemicals interact and activate or inactivate nuclear receptors. We utilize this method to predict activity of new, untested compounds via computer simulations (in silico).”
Dirk Pijnenburg | PamGene
”I am coordinating and performing microarray-based screening on multiple nuclear receptor assays to establish a discriminatory database of chemicals affecting metabolic pathways. My hope is that together with other EDCMET groups we will be able to create a screening battery transcending the individual screening methods.”
Pauliina Pinta | University of Eastern Finland
“I am a fifth year pharmacy student with a background in biopharmaceutics. I joined the EDCMET project to do my master’s thesis on the effects of NRF2 transcription factor activation on human energy metabolism.”
Sini Pitkänen | University of Eastern Finland
“I joined EDCMET as a student and that was a great stroke of luck. I have been given the chances to take part in many fascinating EDC experiments. I also had my own project where I was developing in vitro assays to screen the compounds. I’m happy to continue the research to identify metabolic health hazards.”
Jaana Rysä | University of Eastern Finland
“Currently my group is working on development of Adverse Outcome Pathway that is relevant for metabolic effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. It is exciting to collect data from all existing studies and organize data into one pathway.”
Anni Tolvanen | University of Eastern Finland
“I am an environmental science student with a passion for biochemistry. I’m curious about environmental exposures and their effects on health. Currently, I am working as a trainee in the EDCMET project studying metabolic effects of EDCs. I’m happy to be part of the team collaborating to increase understanding of EDCs.”
