Martin Jones

Dr Martin R. Jones obtained his PhD in metabolomics (bioanalytical chemistry) from the University of Birmingham, under the supervision of Professor Mark R. Viant. Following a postdoctoral position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in the group of Dr Elisabeth M.-L. Janssen, where he established capabilities to screen lake waters for cyanobacterial metabolites of emerging toxicological concern, he returned to the University of Birmingham as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Dr Ralf J. M. Weber. His research now focusses on the development of bespoke bioanalytical and computational workflows for the production and analysis of quality ‘omics’ data sets as part of the multi-national PrecisionTox project.

NextGen Basel 1

Cross-species, multi-omics analyses as a new approach to chemical hazard assessment

PrecisionTox is an international (EU Horizon 2020-funded) research project that aims to establish New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for chemical hazard assessment based on a unique combination of: 1) ‘omics’ science, 2) machine learning, and 3) chemical exposure experiments in phylogenetically disparate, 3Rs-compliant, non-sentient model organisms (nia magna, Danio rerio, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and Xenopus laevis) and the HepG2 cell line. Together, these components give rise to NAMs that are, in concept, higher-throughput, ethically superior, and mechanistically more informative (and thereby arguably of greater value to regulatory decision makers) than existing toxicological testing routines. By virtue of the inclusion of diverse biosystems, PrecisionTox NAMs also provide opportunities to explore the phylogenetic basis of chemical-induced adverse health effects (“phylotoxicology”), i.e. to assess whether relationships exist between the presence/absence and types of chemical-induced adverse health effects, and the molecular composition of each biosystem, as defined by the interplay of its genes, environment and diet.

To achieve its goals, the PrecisionTox consortium will expose the above-mentioned biosystems to (up to) 200 carefully selected chemicals, at defined doses and across multiple time points. Samples generated through these experiments will undergo phenotypic assessments, alongside in-depth molecular characterisation via cutting-edge transcriptomics and metabolomics workflows. Resulting data sets will be fused and interrogated using machine learning pipelines to garner molecular mechanistic insights into chemical-induced adverse health effects, and to evaluate the concept of “phylotoxicology”. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the pilot phase of the project, in which exposures to 5 out of the (up to) 200 total chemicals have been completed. Data and observations will be presented (primarily) for the metabolomics components of this work, in addition to a summary of our approach to selecting doses and time points for the main exposure and data production phases of the project.