Lectures and seminars IMM Seminar: Multibehavioral fingerprints can identify the mode of action for neuroactive environmental chemicals

Prof. Dr. Tamara Tal leads the Mechanistic Toxicology Group at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ and holds a Professorship in Integrated Systems Toxicology in the Medical Faculty at University Leipzig. Prior to joining the UFZ in 2019, Tamara was a Principal Investigator at the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the Office of Research and Development. Her group develops new approach methods for developmental and adult neurotoxicity endpoints and works to resolve underlying mechanisms by which widely occurring pollutants alter neurobehavioral development in early life stage zebrafish. As part of the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), Tamara leads a European-wide effort to develop new developmental and adult neurotoxicity test methods to ultimately modernize chemical risk assessment. She is an associate editor of Neurotoxicology and previously served as a member of the US National Toxicology Program Scientific Advisory Committee on Alternative Toxicological Methods (SACATM). 

Her presentation will focus on the development of a next-generation multi-behaviour-based assay that captures chemical effects on learning and memory. Tamara will also present work on how behaviour fingerprints are predictive of underlying mode of action information that can be experimentally evaluated in zebrafish, rodent, and human cell models. Finally, she will discuss how behaviour-based testing adds value to the existing cell-based DNT in vitro battery (DNT-IVB).

Host: Anna Beronius, Unit of Biochemical Toxicology, IMM