"Identification of pathways of developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) of environmental chemicals by -omics technologies."

Georgina Harris, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Lena Smirnova and Dr. Thomas Hartung at the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, was the recipient of a Special Merit Award from the International Foundation for Ethical Research (IFER) from 2016-17. She was also an IFER Graduate Fellowship recipient from 2013-2016 and received support for her project, “Identification of pathways of developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) of environmental chemicals by -omics technologies.” Georgina’s project aims to establish methods for assessing developmental neurotoxicity in vitro using human cells. As current strategies to evaluate DNT rely heavily on animal models which lack human-relevance, raise ethical concerns and are expensive, Georgina’s work has the potential to revolutionize DNT studies while reducing the use of animals in this area.