Linus Wiklund
PhD student
I am a PhD Student at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, and my research project is "A novel mechanism-based approach for assessment of developmental toxicity of endocrine disruptors".
About me
I am a PhD Student at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, KI, in Annika Hanbergs group, and my main supervisor is Anna Beronius. I got my masters in Toxicology at KI in 2020, and started my PhD here at the Biochemical Toxicology unit in 2021.
In my research project, I work with regulatory risk assessment of Endocrine Disruptors (EDs) and development of risk assessment methodology. I frequently utilize methods such as Systematic Review methodology, Weight-of-Evidence approaches, study quality assessment using the SciRAP tool, and the Adverse Outcome Pathway framework. We also investigate relevant chemicals legislation, and evaluate current regulatory requirements for identification of EDs, in our case studies.
Research description
Currently, a vast amount of animal data on adverse effects, as well as mechanistic information on molecular and cellular level, is required to identify a chemical as an ED. Concurrently, there are notable developments in the field of New Approach Methods (NAMs) investigating endocrine mechanisms. However, integrating data from NAMs into chemical risk assessment has proven difficult. Here, the AOP framework has been highlighted as it allows for linkage between early event on molecular and cellular level, with adverse outcomes in the organism.
The aim of my work is to investigate a A novel mechanism-based approach for assessment of developmental toxicity of endocrine disruptors, part of a FORMAS funded project. We have developed a data-driven workflow to generate AOP networks, and use this to create network for the Estrogen, Androgen, Thyroid, and Steroidogenesis (EATS)-modalitites. This AOP network is utilized in case studies to integrate data from non-animal in vitro and in silico methods into the ED assessment.