Gemma López Llaó
437746
gemma.lopez@idaea.csic.es
ORCID:
0000-0001-8298-8160
Research group: Environmental Toxicology
After receiving her BSc in Pharmacy (University of Barcelona, 2013-2018), she decided to increase her knowledge in toxicology by enrolling the MSc in Toxicology at Karolinska Institutet (2019-2021). Since September 2022 she has become a PhD student at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), more specifically in the group of environmental toxicology, in Cinta Porte's laboratory. Her thesis is related to the development of New Approach Methodologies for evaluating the toxicity of biodegradable plastics and additives (BIOPLAS).
BIOPLAS
New Approach Methodologies for evaluating the toxicity of biodegradable plastics and plastic additives
The occurrence of plastic and its associated chemicals in the aquatic environment is an issue of great social and economic concern.
Investigating the toxic effects of plastics and associated chemicals is a challenging task. In recent years, global research efforts are being
directed towards the development and application of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) based on in vitro systems that do not require
the use of living organism and provide information on chemical hazard by elucidating the mechanisms of toxicity. Within this context, there
is growing interest in the development of models that predict realistic exposure scenarios using repeated or chronic exposures at lower
doses to provide more environmentally relevant results as well as reducing animal testing. Traditional two-dimensional (2D) cells culture or
monolayer cell cultures are a very useful approach, but have some limitations when predicting in-vivo effects. This has driven the
development of more realistic and predictive three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models to improve the prognostic capability of in vitro
testing systems
This project aims to improve the predictability and to validate selected NAMs (fish cell monolayers, spheroids, mussel explants) for toxicity
assessment of bio-based and biodegradable plastics, as well as plastic additives. The project explores the analysis of the lipidome and
proteome together with traditional toxicological data (cell viability, gene expression, enzymatic activities), to characterize the complexity of
the biological response and the alterations produced by a selected number of plastic extracts. The application of integrative and projection
models such as the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) will facilitate the linkage between molecular responses and an adverse outcome,
and will help to alert on the deterioration of aquatic systems.
This project, by developing new relevant cell models and high-throughput systems will provide integrative and reliable indicators of
environmental and health impact, from which both plastic producers and policy makers can benefit for a better management and protection
of natural resources and fulfil the social demand for a safer environment.
Funding: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. PID2021-122592NB-I00
- IDAEA Personnel:
- Cinta Porte (PI)
- Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh (postDoc)
- Tiantian Wang (PhD student)
- Gemma López (PhD student)
- Miquel Perrelló (PTA)
- Non-IDAEA Personnel:
- Montserrat Solé (ICM-CSIC, co-IP)
- Amparo Torreblanca (Universidad de Valencia)