Global Collaboration and Cutting-Edge Research: RECETOX’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Projects

Žiga Tkalec is a chemist from Slovenia. He finished his bachelor and master studies of chemistry, focusing on organic chemistry. After that, he started a PhD focused on organic analytical chemistry looking at environment and human health. In other words, he is specialized in looking for and identifying chemicals that could be harmful for the environment and people living in it.

“Everybody is concerned about pollution, and we can see direct effect of pollution everywhere we look. Water, air and food, all contain traces of chemicals that are of human origin, such as pesticides, plasticizers, preservatives and so on. And many of these chemicals can affect human health. Each year there is an increase in cases of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegeneration. The cause for most of these diseases is unknown, but there is an increase in evidence that exposure to chemicals might contribute to it. And that is exactly the topic of my project - FRANKIE. In the blood of patients, I am trying to find the evidence of exposure to chemicals, that might be linked to neurodegenerative disease, specifically, Parkinson’s disease. If the direct link between these chemicals and occurrence of the disease can be found, then by avoiding exposure to these chemicals, we could limit the number of future cases of Parkinson’s disease,” describes his research topic Žiga.

In Žiga’s opinion, whatever we put into the environment eventually comes back to us. So, to protect the environment and human health, we need information on what is harmful, and this will help policymakers introduce changes to reduce the risk. Moreover, his biggest motivation to do this kind of research is his love for nature.

“Cliché as it may sound, I love spending time in nature, especially rock climbing, hiking, and diving. Traveling around the world searching for beautiful new places, I see more and more loss of biodiversity, ecosystems, species, and other irreversible effects of human activity. Finally, being part of nature—a fact that we tend to forget—this likewise affects humans, which is mostly evident as an increased number of people being chronically ill. So, I believe that my work can contribute to improving a tiny fraction of this issue,” says Žiga.

And which method is used to reach the results? Researcher uses a specific machine that, after giving it some carefully prepared blood, provides information on the identity of molecules within the blood. This is done by measuring the mass of the molecules.

“Think of when you had to calculate the molecular mass of water in primary school. It’s like that, except we measure it and compare it to the calculated mass. We do that for as many molecules in blood as possible. From that, we try to identify if the molecule is a pollutant or a molecule that originates from the body, like hormones, amino acids, and sugars. Then we can connect it through statistics to see if it is relevant for Parkinson’s disease or not,” describes Žiga.

The first paper from Žiga’s research will be published in the next few months, and the second one at the end of next year.

Gabriel Glotz is from Croatia, and he is currently working at Masaryk University in the field of organic photochemistry. The aim of his research is to develop a class of organic dyes that absorb red light.

“To introduce my MSCA project, I would start with a question: Have you ever placed your finger on the flashlight in your smartphone? If you have, you may have noticed that your finger appears red. The reason behind this is that a flashlight emits white light, which consists of all the colors of the rainbow. Human tissue absorbs most colors of light quite well, except for red. In other words, red light passes through your finger, making it appear red,” says Gabriel.

Organic dyes have great potential in various fields of science. One possible application for such dyes can be illustrated through the example of chemotherapy—a cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs.

“We are all aware of the negative side effects of chemotherapy. The fact that it works both where it should and where it shouldn’t. Now, imagine for a moment that there is a drug that remains inactive when taken, doing nothing, until you choose when and where it should work. By coupling the drug with an organic dye, we can achieve exactly that: we can use light to control when and where the drug will activate by simply shining light on the desired area,” continues Gabriel.

This brings us back to the flashlight experiment. It must be the kind of light that can penetrate human tissue—red light. Therefore, dyes that absorb red light are necessary to conduct any photochemistry within human tissues. In Gabriel’s opinion, such systems would have a significant impact not only on science but also on society at large.

“The reason I am particularly interested in this research is because it beautifully interconnects the intrinsic complexity of photochemistry and spectroscopy with organic synthesis, allowing for the creation of all sorts of weird and wonderful organic molecules. The goal of my project is to develop a new set of dyes that will serve as a building block for future research,” explains Gabriel.

As he says, Gabriel aims to publish scientific papers on this work in prestigious journals, enabling other researchers to build on the results for further advancements.

“I am delighted to be conducting this research in Prof. Petr Klán’s group and to be part of the RECETOX team. Hopefully, the first results will be published soon, within a year at most,” concludes Gabriel.

Kapil Mandrah comes from India, where he earned his PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, a public institution dedicated to scientific research and development in various areas of toxicology, including the impact of industrial and environmental chemicals on human health and ecosystems.

Currently, he focuses on setting up and developing targeted methods to analyze metabolic markers of disease and chemical exposure. His MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship project, named RENAISSANCE, focuses on exploring possible mechanism behind development of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), a type of chronic liver disease commonly associated with diabetes and obesity.

“This research is very important because 3 out of 10 people deal with MASLD in their lifetime. MASLD can be simply defined as the deposition of excess fat more than 5-10 % in the liver, which can damage liver functions inside the human body. As this disease develops due to metabolic syndromes as one of the responsible factors, finding medical and clinical solutions becomes very important,” explains Kapil.

It was Kapil’s interest in analytical chemistry applications that motivated him to work on the project, which will hopefully be useful in finding solutions for health-related problems associated with metabolic diseases. As he says, metabolomics is a powerful technology for identifying potential biomarkers of disease; therefore, identifying these biomarkers in blood-based samples is an important aspect of finding diagnostic solutions to help manage and treat MASLD.

“I am carrying out experimental studies within the group of Dr. Elliott James Price, and the results of my research will most likely be published in 2025” mentions Kapil.