In this project, the PhD students are working on the development of cell line-based methods for assessing the toxicity of chemicals in water bodies, and particularly on fish. Within the framework of this research, Mihai is developing a panel of protein markers with the aim of understanding the molecular response to chemical exposure, while Jessica is focused on the establishment of an in vitro assay for predicting neurotoxicity.

Jessica Bertoli furthermore received the poster prize at the conference of the Swiss Society of Toxicology in Basel in November 2023, where she presented her research “Developing in vitro fish cell-based models for neurotoxicity testing”.