Interview with Giulia Callegaro

I am part of the research team at Leiden University which is leading WP7, involved in safety biomarkers discovery. Here in Leiden we can make advantage of high-throughput in vitro systems relying on high content imaging to unravel the molecular mechanisms leading to adversities at the cellular level. To make one step further and connect this information to an in vivo situation, we rely on omic data collected from in vitro and in vivo systems. One of the tasks I am primarily responsible for is bridging these two worlds.

What is your overall vision of the project?

eTRANSAFE has the potential to create impact on both pharmaceutical drug development as well as academic research. The analysis platform that will result will certainly increase the efficiency of drug safety assessment, leveraging legacy data at its full potential. From an academic perspective, this platform will potentially represent a source of high quality data that could help in tackling the problems of the future.

What do you find most challenging about the project?

Using the project name as a roadmap, the trans next to the safe is what I find the most critical challenge. In particular translating the knowledge on molecular mechanisms from preclinical systems to the clinical situation requires the availability of large volume of high quality and detail data. Luckily, we have the e and the efforts of many partners in the project to achieve that point.

What represents eTRANSAFE for your personal career?

eTRANSAFE has been so far in my experience an inspiring example on how to integrate the pharmaceutical sector and academic research. This project represents a great opportunity for me to appreciate the direct effect of my research in terms of societal relevance, and to open a conversation with stakeholders that will improve the quality of my work.