Department Environmental Chemistry

Non-target screening of organic chemicals for a comprehensive environmental risk assessment 

Identification of unknown compounds in the natural and engineered aquatic environment was the paramount topic of a whole week during the NonTarget2016 conference, hold at the Congressi Stefano Franscini (CSF), Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland from May 29 - June 3, 2016. The conference addressed state-of-the-art non-target screening (NTS) approaches, including new analytical technologies for detecting organic contaminants, cheminformatics workflows and statistical tools to select and prioritize chromatographic peaks for identification. Additionally, applications to real-world studies were presented, such as real-time monitoring of large rivers such as the Rhine, and finally implementation in risk assessment within regulatory frameworks. The fully booked conference brought together 120 participants from 21 countries (see group picture), including leading scientists from disciplines such as environmental chemistry, informatics, food analysis and toxicology along with stakeholders from industry and regulatory bodies. Travel awards supported 15 of approximately 40 young researchers thanks to different sponsors.

The program featured a mixed format with 3 plenary lectures and 8 keynote lectures from leaders in their fields, along with 33 shorter oral and 62 poster presentations from conference participants. Two poster sessions on Monday and Tuesday afternoon facilitated the exchange of information and discussions. Several presentations are available for download. Awards were available for excellent young scientists, selected by a committee of international experts.

Additionally, 11 workshops (in three parallel sessions) were organized in the afternoons by various participants and included demonstrations of various software platforms and discussions of “hot topics”. These stimulated intense discussions on the applicability of practical informatics tools, and triggered exchange of new and emerging strategies for unknown compound identification including effect directed analysis.

The feedback from participants was extremely positive and a follow-up conference is envisaged in 2018 in North America to foster the international exchange and collaboration.

The organizers (Juliane Hollender, Heinz Singer, Emma Schymanski from Eawag, Switzerland and Lee Ferguson from Duke University, USA) would like to thank all sponsors (Swiss National Science Foundation, scientific networks, several vendors, industrial companies, Swiss Federal Offices for the environment), the scientific committee, Paolo Demaria and all participants for this fantastic conference.