Human health impact assessment

Human health can be affected by exposure to a wide variety of chemicals both of synthetic and natural origin (i.e. the exposome). Only when present at sufficiently high levels this may lead to adverse health effects. Classical targeted approaches measuring a relatively small set of these chemicals are very limited in their scope. By focussing on central processes that govern cellular functioning and homeostasis, CALUX® reporter assays can be used to integrate the combined effects of the exposome and relate these to adverse health effects such as endocrine disruption, obesity and metabolic diseases, carcinogenesis and reproductive- and developmental toxicity. The sensitivity and high-throughput compatibility of these assays makes them suitable both for mechanistic studies as well as screenings of large sample panels. In many cases, epidemiological studies and monitoring of human health effects are hampered by the limited amount of available sample material. In addition, many analytical techniques are costly and time-consuming to perform. High-throughput CALUX bioassays provide solutions to all these issues. Another important benefit of using CALUX assays is that they often give mechanistic insight in health effects that may otherwise only be correlated to a certain exposure from a statistical point of view. We are experienced to analyse a wide range of human tissues, such as blood plasma, breast milk, and urine.