Hormone-disrupting chemicals in our environment can affect early neurodevelopment in children, but little is known about the exact mechanisms for this interference. A new EU funded research project, coordinated from Karolinska Institutet, now aims to learn more and to develop better screening and testing tools.
The project called ENDpoiNTs (Novel Testing Strategies for Endocrine Disruptors in the Context of Developmental NeuroToxicity) includes 16 partners in Europe, United States and Australia. Coordinator for the entire project is Dr Joëlle Rüegg, a molecular biologist and associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet and also affiliated to the research organization Swetox. The project is funded through the Horizon2020 framework program with EUR 6.89 million or about SEK 70 million.
The ENDpoiNTs researchers hope to clarify the causal link between hormone-disrupting chemicals and neurodevelopmental injuries by integrating expertise from different, but today largely independent, toxicology communities, and by combining novel experimental technologies with advanced biostatistics on human epidemiological and biomonitoring data. Another important aim is to ensure that the tools developed by the project can successfully be used in society.
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