Translational NAMs in pharmacology & toxicology for drug profiling

I am seeking collaboration opportunities focused on **New Approach Methodologies (NAMs)**under the HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-TOOL-03 or HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-TOOL-06, to contribute in end-to-end preclinical translational pharmacology/toxicology profiling that can accelerate drug discovery or drug repurposing, while supporting translational modeling and reducing reliance on mammalian in vivo testing.

What we can offer:

1. Deep expertise and laboratory capacity in molecular pharmacology and toxicology, with a strong focus on neuropharmacology, and anticancer pharmacology, delivering high-quality experimental packages for: a) efficacy and mechanism-of-action profiling, b) safety/toxicology profiling, c) drug distribution/uptake assessments, d) identification and validation of biomarkers relevant to response and toxicity.

   We can apply these workflows to new chemical entities (drug discovery), approved clinical drugs (drug repurposing), and biomolecules including nanoparticles, miRNA-based approaches, antibodies, and other emerging molecular/cellular modalities (novel therapeutics/biomarkers).

2. NAM-ready platforms and models (core):

   We can contribute advanced human-relevant models for pharmacology/toxicology profiling, including:

   • Organoids and spheroids, mostly focusing on brain spheroids/organoids (but we can also work with other tissue) as functional platforms to quantify drug efficacy, toxicity, and distribution.

   • Patient-Derived Organoids (PDOs) for personalized pharmacological assays with potential predictive clinical value (therapy prioritization, sensitivity/resistance patterns, response signatures).

   • Blood Brain Barrier-relevant brain organoid/spheroid approaches to assess drug permeability and CNS delivery potential (as part of BBB-crossing/brain exposure assessment workflows).

   • Pharmacogenomics (PGx) assays, integrated with the above models, to link genotype/biomolecular context to pharmacological response and toxicity signals.

   • Translational in vivo confirmation using a comprehensive zebrafish larvae model for drug screening & imaging, that can support live, high-throughput efficacy, toxicity and pharmacokinetics readouts [Zebrafish larvae <5 days post fertilization zebrafish larvae are not considered “protected animals” under the EU Directive 2010/63/EU, providing a pragmatic route to reduce mammalian animal use testing when in vivo confirmation is needed].

3. Laboratory capacity/assets and enabling infrastructure:

   • A curated clinical drug library of 1,000+ compounds available for systematic drug repurposing screens and reference compound benchmarking.

   • High-throughput screening (HTS) capacity using robotic screening with assay miniaturization down to picolitre scale, enabling rapid iteration, dose–response mapping, and efficient use of patient-derived material.

   • Advanced live-cell & live-organism imaging using ultra-high-resolution confocal microscopy for cell-resolution mechanistic readouts and spatial biology and high-throughput real-time fluorescence imaging for organoid/spheroid imaging, kinetic/temporal phenotyping and screening-compatible quantification.

Our lab is particularly well matched to teams that are looking for:

a) Repurposing-driven validation (reference compounds, benchmarking panels, rapid screening-to-mechanism pipeline), b) Cancer and CNS-focused translational assays, including PDO-based personalised testing, c) Quantitative imaging-based phenotyping that can scale from deep mechanistic readouts to screening throughput.

What we are looking for (ideal consortium fit):

We are interested in joining consortia that aim to develop or validate NAM platforms (e.g., organoids/spheroids, human tissue-relevant assays, advanced imaging readouts, AI-enabled interpretation) that need a partner to deliver pharmacology/toxicology evidence packages, including robust screening, mechanistic follow-up, and reproducible SOP-driven validation.

We can propose a clear Work Package contribution around:

(1) assay build/optimization, (2) screening & dose-response pharmacology, (3) mechanistic validation and biomarker discovery, (4) imaging-enabled phenotyping pipelines, (5) pharmacogenomics-linked response stratification (6) in vivo testing using non-protected zebrafish larval models that strengthen translational confidence while supporting 3Rs goals.