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Research on endocrine disruptors and hormone-like substances
The endocrine system is influenced by numerous internal and external factors. It can be susceptible to many natural and synthetic substances after they enter the body.
Some substances, when entering the body in effective doses, could cause health problems by altering the endocrine system. Such substances are called endocrine disruptors. The BfR conducts its own research to support the assessment of the health risks of substances that are classified as hormone-like substances and may possibly act as endocrine disruptors.
According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), an endocrine disruptor is an exogenous substance or mixture of substances that alters the function(s) of the endocrine system and thereby causes negative or harmful health effects on an intact organism or its progeny or (a subsection of) the population.
The BfR's third-party funded research projects (ongoing and completed) are listed below.
BfR third-party funded projects on endocrine disruptors and hormone-like substances
| Status | Project titel | Description |
| Ongoing, EU |
Metabolic effects of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals: novel testing METhods and adverse outcome pathways (EDCMET) | The EDCMET project covers a variety of methods for novel and improved approaches to address the metabolic effects of endocrine disruptors. |
| Ongoing, EU |
PANORAMIX - Science-based risk assessment of real-life chemical mixture scenarios across regulatory boundaries | PANORAMIX is based on an effect-directed analysis (EDA) platform that leverages the development of in vitro-based risk assessment technologies combined with a platform for both suspected and non-targeted chemical screening analysis. |
| Ongoing, EU |
Strategies for health protection, pollution Control and Elimination of Next generAtion Refractive Organic chemicals from Soil, vadose zone and water | In the EU-funded SCENARIOS project, 19 project partners are working on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The BfR leads the work package dealing with the risk assessment of PFAS for both the environment and human health. |
| Ongoing, EU |
Boosting Crop Growth using Natural Product and Synthesis Enabled Solar Harvesting (Boost Crop) | Cold and freezing stress are important constraints for crops and for horticulture. BoostCrop seeks to reduce such stress with new "molecular heaters". The project analyses the by-products and toxicity of the "molecular heaters" and examines them for possible cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity in humans. |
| Ongoing, EU |
ITN PERFORCE3 | ITN PERFORCE3 is a pan-European doctoral research training program in the field of PFAS contaminants, aiming to improve risk assessment in the areas environment and human health. |
| Ongoing, EFSA |
Critical appraisal tools (CATs) for evaluation of the evidence from human observational epidemiological studies and further use in weight-of-evidence approaches | The project supports the development, testing and completion of a validated tool for the assessment of evidence from individual observational epidemiological studies on humans. |
| Ongoing, DFG |
The role of xenoestrogens and GPER receptor for centrosome amplification and chromosomal instability in colorectal cancer cells | The project investigates the underlying mechanisms of a suspected connection between synthetic endocrine active substances (EAS) with estrogenic activity (so-called xenoestrogens) and an increased risk of colorectal cancer. |
| Completed, EU |
European Test and Risk Assessment Strategies for Mixtures (EuroMix) | The central aim of Euromix is to developin silico and in vitro tools for chemical risk assessment and to verify them against in vivo experiments. The project focuses in detail on hepatic, endocrine and developmental effects. |
| Completed, BMBF |
Combiomics - Investigation of mixture effects of pesticides in vitro | In order to develop in vitro methods for the assessment of the exposure to multiple pesticide residues, the project investigates potential combined effects in vitro using fungicides (triazoles). Triazoles possess hepatotoxic and endocrine disrupting properties. |
| Completed, BMBF |
Combiomics 2 - Investigation of mixture effects of pesticides in vitro | The project studies the combined effects of the active ingredients of fungicide (triazoles). The in vitro tests are carried out using the liver carcinoma cell line HepaRG and, for validation, selectively on human hepatocytes. |
| Completed, DFG |
Molecular mechanisms of the toxicity of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) | The toxicological data of PFOA give cause for concern as the substance was shown to damage the liver of rodents and to impair embryo development.. The study contributes to the understanding of novel modes of action of PFOA in human liver cells on the molecular level. |
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