LRI AMBIT Workshop

Cefic’s Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) is organising a training workshop on the AMBIT tool on 21 January at Cefic’s Brussels offices. AMBIT tool is a predictive toxicity model based on read-across and categorisation. The tool is a web-based application freely available to all and could prove very useful for companies for both R&D and regulatory purposes – in particular for REACH.

The AMBIT tool is described on the LRI website and in more detail on its own website and in this presentation from the LRI 2015 programme workshop.

The workshop is entitled ‘Linking LRI AMBIT Chemo informatics system with the IUCLID Substance database to support Read across of Substance endpoint data and Category formation.’
AMBIT is an essential component of the LRI toolbox of methods and instruments, while IUCLID (International Uniform Chemical Information Database) is a key tool for the chemical community to fulfil data submission obligations under REACH. The linking of the two systems was undertaken in LRI project EEM9.3.

The inclusion of high quality substance data will enhance the predictive power of the AMBIT in-silico tool. The new version of AMBIT also implements workflows for assessments and should minimise overall animal testing needs and resource costs.

Another important new feature is the automatic assignment of chemical structures from the AMBIT structure pool to all the constituents, impurities and additives defined in an IUCLID substance. A search for a defined structure yields relevant substances and endpoint data that could be filtered as required by the user.

In addition AMBIT has several output options including the generation of an assessment report as a Word document that itemises justification/ validation of the approach taken.

AMBIT is an open source application with many functions that can be further developed or customised. The EEM9.3 project ended this month (December 2015) and the new version of AMBIT will become a free, open, publicly available tool.

The AMBIT workshop on 21 January will allow users to gain “hands on” experience of the new system.

Free registration
There is no charge for attendance at the AMBIT workshop but places are restricted to a maximum of 50 participants – so reserve you seat now! You can view the programme of the workshop here.

To register, please send an email to Andreea Udrea withh cc to LRI Programme Manager Bruno Hubesch. Places will be allocated on a ‘first come first served basis’.

For more information on LRI activities, please contact Dr. Bruno Hubesch, LRI Programme Manager or the LRI Secretariat.

2015 LRI Innovative Science Award Winner Announced

French researcher Dr. Alice Limonciel was awarded the €100,000 LRI Innovative Science award, one of Europe’s largest research grants for early career scientists, at an award ceremony at Cefic’s 17th Annual Long-Range Initiative (LRI) Workshop in Brussels on November 18, 2015.

Dr.  Limonciel’s winning research proposal is entitled "Establishment of thresholds of activation of stress
responses pathways and ligand-activated receptors for chemical classification” and will investigate cellular responses to the acceleration of chronic kidney disease progression due to chemical exposure. The project aims to identify the genes involved in cellular stress response pathways, quantify these responses in parallel with markers of cellular dysfunction and deliver a new generation of quantitative tools based on gene expression to evaluate the hazard linked to chemical exposure for use in risk assessment strategies.

Dr. Pierre Barthélemy, Cefic Executive Director of Research and Innovation commented: “It’s always a pleasure to see the enthusiasm of early career scientists and their desire to make our world safer. The LRI Innovative Science is a great opportunity for them to develop their breakthrough ideas with complete freedom, find new approaches to tackle risk assessment and help reduce uncertainty as it relates to chemicals safety”.

Dr. Limonciel (pictured above, right, receiving the award from Yves Verschueren Managing Director of Essenscia)  studied pharmacology and toxicology at the engineering school Polytech’ Nice-Sophia in France. She completed her doctoral studies in the department of Physiology and Medical Physics at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria in 2013.  Dr. Limonciel is currently working at Innsbruck as a Postdoctoral researcher on molecular mechanisms of nephrotoxicity notably using the integration of multiple omic datasets such as transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenomics.

A video from the LRI Award ceremony 2015 is embedded below. 



The award ceremony and dinner were the highlights of the first day of the 2015 Annual CEFIC-LRI Workshop. The second day of the workshop will focus on non–animal-based safety assessment and will showcase the outcome and impact of several LRI projects completed in 2014-2015 from the fields of environmental risk assessment, bioconcentration, chemo-informatics, exposure modelling, skin sensitization and acceptance of innovation.

About the Award
The LRI Innovative Science Award worth €100 000 was first introduced in 2004 as a funding opportunity for young scientists based in Europe. Its aim is to stimulate innovative research, to foster ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking and to introduce new approaches that will advance the environmental assessment of hazardous substances. More than a decade later, it is still the biggest award of its kind in Europe and has helped numerous scientists realise their ambitions and become part of the LRI scientific network.

The Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) is part of Cefic's voluntary initiatives to improve the Regulatory Framework of the chemical industry in Europe. Its mission is to identify and fill gaps in our understanding of the hazards posed by chemicals and to improve the methods available for assessing the associated risks.

For more information on the LRI activities and the award, please contact Programme Manager Bruno Hubesch.

LRI Workshop looks at progress in Non-animal-based safety assessment

Don’t forget the Long-Range Research Initiative Programme (LRI) of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) is holding its 17th annual workshop on 18 and 19 November 2015 in Brussels. This year, the Annual CEFIC-LRI Workshop will focus on non–animal-based safety assessment and will showcase the outcome and impact of several LRI projects completed in 2014-2015 from the fields of environmental risk assessment, bioconcentration, chemo-informatics, exposure modelling, skin sensitization and acceptance of innovation.

Registration is now open and free!
The Cefic-LRI workshop is a must-attend event for the scientific community and an excellent networking opportunity for policymakers. This year’s venue is Le Plaza Hotel Brussels.

On the evening of the first day the LRI programme will present the winner of the LRI Innovative Science Award for 2015 and also catch up with the progress of winner of the 2014 LRI Award winner Dr Alexandra Antunes of the Centro de Química Estrutural, Complexo Interdisciplinar Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal and her work on Covalent Modification of Histones by Carcinogens: a novel proteomic approach toward the assessment of chemically-induced cancers.

AMBIT tool
The second day will feature plenary sessions on the impact of LRI projects that cover subjects including an integrated modelling tool for ecological risk assessment, a mechanistic bioconcentration model for ionogenic organic compounds in fish, passive sampling formats, exposure modelling platforms and much more.

One of the presentations will feature the project to revise and update the AMBIT tool as a predictive toxicity model based on read-across and category formation. The tool can be used for both research and regulatory purposes and will be released in early 2016 and will be fully loaded and formatted with the non-confidential part of the REACH database. LRI will soon organize hands-on training to familiarize research experts with this new web-based application. Keep an eye on the LRI website for more announcements on this.

Panel discussion
And in the afternoon of Day 2, Prof Ian Kimber of the University of Manchester with moderate a dedicated panel discussion on non-animal-based safety assessment to consider the questions: “Non-animal based safety assessment: within reach or over-sold? Do we need to set back expectations?”

The panel will focus on current and future developments in non-animal toxicity testing methods and address the key issues and challenges to developing non-animal methods in toxicology. It will also examine visionary versus unrealistic regulatory expectations e.g. in view of REACH 2018.

The panel will consist of:

• Dr Karel de Raat, ECHA
• Dr Karen Niven, Shell
• Dr Alan Poole, ECETOC
• Dr Rick Becker, American Chemistry Council
• Dr Raffaella Corvi, JRC/EURL-ECVAM
• Prof Jim Bridges, Univ. Surrey
• Dr Kirsty Reid, Eurogroup for Animals

More information
For more details of the 17th Annual CEFIC-LRI workshop visit the dedicated webpage and download the final programme.

To register for the event, please click here.

You can follow the event on Twitter via the hashtag #lri2015

For more information on the workshop, please contact Dr. Bruno Hubesch, LRI Programme Manager or the LRI Secretariat.

More about LRI
The Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) programme is a major voluntary initiative of the European chemical industry to support the long-term sustainability of its sector and European society. Through the programme we hope to identify the hazards posed by chemicals and improve the methods available for assessing the associated risks.

The LRI sponsors high-quality research of a standard publishable in a reputable peer-reviewed journal, and seeks to provide sound scientific advice on which industry and regulatory bodies can draw-on to respond quickly and accurately to the public's concerns.

LRI research supports the 3R's principle. Read more here: http://cefic-lri.org/lri-research-programme/research-areas/intelligent-testing/ and http://cefic-lri.org/news/cefic-lri-in-joint-cross-sector-workshop-on-alternatives-for-skin-sensitization-testing-and-assessment/.

Helsinki Chemicals Forum 2015 and SusChem

Every year since 2009 in late spring, a meeting takes place in Helsinki that is of major relevance to chemicals manufacturers and their customers. And not just those whose businesses operate mainly in Europe.  The annual Helsinki Chemicals Forum (HCF) is hosted by the European Chemicals Agency, a body which was set up by the European Commission to manage the ongoing implementation of the EU's Regulation, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals legislation (REACH). SusChem board member Prof Rodney Townsend is a regular presenter at the meeting and here he reports on the 2015 meeting for SusChem News.

This year the Helsinki Chemicals Forum met at the end of May. All of the five main discussion topics had very much in mind the stated  aspiration of the planned 2020 World Summit on Sustainable Development, which is to achieve by 2020 a minimisation of 'the adverse effects of man-made chemicals on human health and the environment'.  An emphasis that ran through the whole meeting was the proposed Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and USA and what the implications of this might be in terms of harmonisation of regulations for chemicals between the two trading areas.

TTIP and REACH
Dr Klaus Berend from the European Commission’s DG Growth is currently advising the TTIP negotiators regarding REACH-related issues. He gave a summary of the current state of negotiations to the HCF participants and emphasised that under TTIP, neither the EU nor the USA will lower current safety standards.  Indeed, both parties will maintain their right to continue to raise them, but for the TTIP to work, harmonisation of current legislative policies is essential.  A further key issue is that neither party will impose their system on the other.  These negotiation principles have important implications for chemicals manufacturers as they seek to develop more sustainable products, whether their markets are primarily in the EU or USA or span both current trading areas.

SusChem is by its very nature highly committed to sustainable development.  Similarly, implementation of and changes in REACH regulations, or their equivalents in the USA, are critically important to any company committed to sustainable innovation.

SusChem was represented at the HCF meeting by myself (second left above) and Erwin Annys, Director of REACH Chemicals Policy at Cefic (centre above), also attended.  Erwin and I were both directly involved in the fifth Panel Discussion topic, entitled ‘Green Chemistry and Engineering – a Fundamental Breakthrough?’  The Panel discussed the basic tenets of the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry which were first enunciated nearly a quarter of a century ago by Paul Anastas, who currently works for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Is Green chemistry sustainable?
The Panel and audience (which added its thoughts via tweets and texts) concluded that it was time to review the Twelve Principles because their focus is almost wholly on the activities of chemists and not on the manufacturing process as a whole.

Specifically the following points were made during the discussion:

• 'Green chemistry' is not the same as 'green chemicals'.  This may seem an obvious point, but the Panel felt that it was not one which legislators always appreciated.  It was noted that current legislation in the USA emphasises just chemicals in final products rather than looking holistically at the sustainable manufacturing system.  See for example: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/principles.html and https://www.dtsc.ca.gov/LawsRegsPolicies/Regs/SCPA.cfm. 
• Although the environmental imperative is the most critical factor in considering sustainable product design, no future process will be truly sustainable if it is not also societally beneficial and economically viable.  This is a key part of SusChem’s 2020 Strategy and also underpins the Europe 2020 growth strategy.  It is for this reason that SusChem prefers not to present ‘green chemistry’ as the answer per se.
• This holistic thinking must extend along whole value chains; what might seem ideal at one point in the chain may have major implications further along the value chain. This is also central to SusChem’s strategic approach.
• In the light of the recent EU Circular Economy initiative there is a strong need for a rethink issues related to waste disposal and re-use. In particular, Principle 1, which just states: 'It is better to prevent waste than to treat it or clean up waste chemicals', needs a major overhaul.

The general conclusion that was drawn at the HCF was that the time is overdue to update the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry.  How this should be done and who should do it is not yet entirely clear, but that it should be done is crystal clear.

In line with movements in global scientific and technological developments, holistic thinking across all disciplinary barriers must proceed apace, especially in the light of the enormous changes and opportunities implicit in the coupling of intelligent computing with 'big data'. This matter will be the subject of a further blog article in the near future.

LRI Workshop: Science-led Decision-Making

Cefic’s Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) programme will hold its 15th annual workshop on 20-21 November 2013 in Brussels and registration is now open. This year’s workshop is titled: “Science-informed decision making: are we on track?”

The workshop’s objective is to demonstrate to scientists, academia, regulators and stakeholders the value that the LRI programme has created and to present its future direction. The workshop will commence on the evening of November 20 with a poster exhibition and dinner at the Sheraton Brussels hotel.

The event aims to examine in particular how science and scientific thinking can contribute to a decision-making process which ensures that future policies and initiatives are based on a holistic view and a realistic assessment of all the relevant data.

On November 21, the morning session of the workshop will discuss new results from the programme’s current project portfolio. The workshop will focus on key areas including thresholds of concern, bio-monitoring, domestic exposure, endocrine disruption, nanomaterials, toxicogenomics and sediment testing.

Innovative Science
In the afternoon, the workshop will continue with the official ceremony for the prestigious Cefic-LRI Innovative Science Award for early career scientists. This will be followed by presentations from external stakeholders (European Commission, European Parliament and specialised media) on the subject of science-informed decision making. The venue for the workshop will be the International Auditorium, Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5, Brussels.

A highlight of the workshop will be a presentation by Dr. Sabine Langie (left) of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO). Dr. Langie is this year’s winner of the Cefic-LRI Innovative Science Award worth € 100 000. The award will help fund her studies on the environmental programming of respiratory allergy in childhood and, specifically, the effect of exposure on DNA methylation. The overall goal of the research is to provide new levels of insight into the molecular mechanism underlying the effect of prenatal exposure on childrens’ allergy risk. The objective of Dr Langie’s research falls within one of the main priorities of the Global ICCA-LRI Research Strategy: to improve our understanding of exposure to chemicals and their effect on health. The research is also highly relevant to European strategy priorities on public health and the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan in Europe (CEHAPE).

Science for Policy Impact
The LRI programme is one of the major voluntary initiatives of the European chemical industry to support its competitiveness and innovation potential. LRI aims to identify hazards posed by chemicals and to improve the methods available for assessing any associated risks.

LRI strives to have a policy impact for its scientific research. It is acknowledged as a preferred partner to provide industry inputs in scientific debates for our stakeholders, particularly on the regulatory side.

In particular LRI engaged with the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) to develop a better understanding of the use of alternatives in the context of REACH (the European regulation on chemical products) context, resulting in a collaborative workshop on acceptance of read-across methodology in late 2012. On the basis of that success, LRI initiated a further collaboration with ECHA on use of alternative testing (in vitro) for skin sensitization in February 2013.

Dr. Bruno Hubesch, LRI Programme Manager commented: “I believe LRI is an ideal platform to engage with stakeholders on research areas of public interest.”

More information
The LRI workshop will be attended by representatives of the European institutions and bodies, academia and industry and provides an excellent opportunity to network with both scientists and policy makers. For more information visit the Cefic-LRI website or contact LRI Programme Manager Bruno Hubesch. The draft programme for the event can be access here and you can register for the event here.

REACH and Innovation

As part of its extensive review of the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulations the European Union has commissioned a new survey to assess the impact of the regulations on launched the innovativeness of the chemical industry in Europe.

The survey, which will be open for input until 7 October 2011, is being conducted by the Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Services (CSES) on behalf of the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry.

This innovation survey forms part of a wider exercise to evaluate the effects of REACH and to inform future amendments to the legislation.

Chemical stakeholders
The online survey of businesses across the European Union will receive feedback on key issues related to the implementation of the REACH Regulation. The survey targets manufacturers and importers of chemical substances but also downstream users, distributors of chemicals and other firms involved in the different stages of the chemicals supply chain that may be affected by the REACH Regulation and is available in all European languages.

Views are solicited on innovation from product conception through testing and piloting to production. Within the interpretation of the term “innovation” is included product, process, marketing and organisational innovation.

For more information on the purpose of the study, please contact Jan Smits, REACH evaluation project leader at CSES. The survey can be found here.