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EDUCATION |
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BIOGRAPHY
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Tamara Vanhaecke is Full Professor Toxicology and Head of the Department In Vitro Toxicology and Dermato-Cosmetology (IVTD) at the faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), that is striving for excellence in the domain of 3R alternative methods, referring to the Reduction, Replacement, Refinement of animal use in research and testing. She has a background in cell and gene biotechnology, holds a doctoral degree in experimental in vitro toxicology, is a European registered toxicologist and a trained chemical risk assessor. Her research is situated in the field of in vitro experimental toxicology with focus on the development of human stem cell-derived hepatocyte-based culture models for the detection of drug-induced liver injury and in the area of in vitro liver disease modelling. She also has several research collaborations with Sciensano (Belgian public institution for public and animal health) that address toxicity concerns related to e-cigarettes, food contact materials, cosmetics and feminine intimate products. She has more than 150 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, and is reviewer for several scientific journals in the field of pharmaco-toxicology, (in vitro) toxicology and hepatology. She has several times been invited speaker on international congresses. She is at the VUB co-holder of 3 patents and obtained 2 international research awards in the field of 3R alternative methods. She has acted as promoter of 10 doctoral theses in pharmaceutical sciences and is promoter of 11 additional PhD theses that are still ongoing. She was the VUB promotor of the European FP7 project START-UP and was involved in the FP7 SEURAT-1 projects DETECTIVE and HeMiBio, and the FP6 projects ESNATS, carcinoGenomics, Predictomics and Liintop. At the EU level, she is Member of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) and former Member of the ECVAM Validation Management Group concerning toxicokinetics and metabolism. |
