14 Déc 2017

Visit by the State Secretary to the SCAHT

On 29th November, the State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, Dr Mauro Dell’Ambrogio, together with the Head of the Research Unit, Dr Nicole Schaad, and Scientific Adviser Dr Cyrille Girardin, visited the SCAHT at the University of Geneva. The visit was hosted by the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Geneva-Lausanne and took place in the recently opened Analytical Sciences laboratories at the Centre Médicale Universitaire which is home to a number of SCAHT-supported research groups. 

The guests were welcomed by the university’s Vice-rector for research and SCAHT co-founder, Prof Denis Hochstrasser, together with the Deans of the Faculties for Medicine and Sciences, Profs Henri Bounameaux and Jérome Lacour, the President of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prof Jean-Luc Wolfender and SCAHT director Prof Martin Wilks. Participants included Geneva-based SCAHT research group leaders, as well as representatives of the SCAHT Management Board from the University of Basel and the Federal Office of Public Health. The interactive programme featured overview presentations of SCAHT research, educational and regulatory toxicology activities. A highlight of the visit was a tour of some of the state-of-the-art laboratory facilities to which the SCAHT has access through its collaboration with the university. This was exemplified using the contribution of proteomics and metabolomics to specific research questions which was presented by post-doctoral researchers funded by the SCAHT. The visit was rounded up by intensive discussions of the challenges that the federal offices face in human health risk assessment and management of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides, and how the SCAHT can help address these today and in the future. The guests appreciated the insight into how the SCAHT network operates, and especially the collaborative and translational nature of the SCAHT projects, bringing together researchers from different universities and disciplines, regulatory toxicologists and scientists from federal offices.