Bio
Thomas Gude is founder of the Consultancy Service “Thomas Gude GmbH”, specialized in food contact material, food and non-food Regulations, Chemical Analysis and Risk Assessments. After studying food chemistry in Berlin, Germany, followed by a PhD in the area of veterinary drugs at the Federal Health Service, Berlin, he has been working for an EU Reference Laboratory and for more than 10 years in pharmaceutical and chemical industry in various research and development positions (chemical analysis, toxicology, pharmacokinetic) as well as in quality assurance. The last 20 years he has been working as Dep. Head for SQTS, Switzerland, responsible for the food and non-food testing laboratories. In addition, he is giving lectures at several institutions/Universities like ETH Zürich in food safety and analytical (food) chemistry. Currently, he is president of the Swiss Society for Food Chemistry (SFC) and president of the AOAC Europe section (Association of Official Analytical Chemists) besides other mandates in several organizations.

Bio
Antonia Concetta Elia graduated in Biological Science and achieved a PhD degree at the University of Perugia. She was sponsored as a Researcher-Non-Faculty at the Department of Biological Science, University of North Texas, from 1994 to 1996 and with a post-doc at the University of Politecnica delle Marche, Italy from 1997 to 1999. At present, she is an associate professor in Ecology and Ecotoxicology at the University of Perugia, where she also practised as an Assistant Professor from 2004 to 2021. Teacher in academic and professional courses and supervisor of master, and PhD students and post-docs, including national and international universities. Participant/principal investigator in several national and international research projects. Reviewer of national and international Scientific Projects and scientific peer-reviewed journals. Member of the editorial board of Toxics (MDPI) and Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A. Elia is a member of several Professional Scientific Societies. Elia, in charge of the Ecotoxicology laboratory at the Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology (DCBB), has many years of research experience in biomarkers of contaminant-mediated oxidative stress, mainly in aquatic organisms. Heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, drugs and biocides, are largely investigated. Monitoring methods based on bioindicators using biomarkers of oxidative stress and accumulation markers are developed providing more timely and comprehensive information on environmental quality. A panel of molecular, biochemical, cellular and biological markers are developed for an integrated assessment of environmental stress and animal health. She contributed to oral presentations at international and national conferences and is the author or co-author of more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Bio
Chris Corton is a Molecular Toxicologist in the Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure at the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. He has been studying mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis for over 30 years focusing on nongenotoxic carcinogenesis. His group is working in a number of areas to 1) reduce the need for animal testing including development of new approach methodologies to allow the prediction of cancer from analysis of gene expression profiles after short-term exposures in animals, 2) build and test tools that allow the interpretation of complex gene expression patterns in chemically-exposed cells to predict potential adverse effects, and 3) apply these tools to understand the potential toxicity of individual chemicals and complex mixtures released from oil and gas operations. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Kansas Medical Center followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship at Duke University. From 1989 to 2002, he was a staff scientist at CIIT in Research Triangle Park, NC. In 1994-1995 he was a visiting scientist in the “Orphan Nuclear Receptor” group at Karolinska University, Huddinge, Sweden. He is on the editorial boards of several journals including Associate Editor for Toxicological Sciences. Dr. Corton has served as the Chair of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) Continuing Education and Current Concepts in Toxicology Committees. He is past President of the Molecular and Systems Biology and Carcinogenesis Specialty Sections. He was the recipient of the SOT 2010 AstraZeneca Traveling Lectureship award and the 2023 Toxicology Forum George H. Scott Memorial Award. He has over 200 publications, many related to understanding chemical toxicity using animal-free methods.