Several species of microalgae have developed a complex specialized metabolism yielding to the production of toxic compounds. When highly concentrated and quickly multiplying, these toxic microalgae are likely to induce negative environmental or toxicological effects, by forming Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). During the past decade, a toxic benthic dinoflagellate belonging to the genus Ostreopsis has bloomed repetitively along the Mediterranean coastline. The causes implied in the increasing incidence of these toxic blooms have not yet been determined even if global change has been pointed out. Indeed, due to its geographical features, the Mediterranean Sea is particularly sensitive to increasing temperatures and solar irradiance that would lead to enhanced thermal stratification and therefore to alterations in ecosystem functioning. Blooms of Ostreopsis were associated to human afflictions in Italy and France, such as fever, water rhinorrhea, pharyngeal pain, dry or mildly productive cough, headache, nausea/vomiting, and bronchoconstriction. Adverse effects on benthic communities of bivalves, gastropods and echinoderms were also observed in some cases. These deleterious effects on both the humans and ecosystem health were attributed to analogs of the potent palytoxin, namely ovatoxins (a to h) produced by Ostreopsis cf. ovata. However, the specialized metabolism of O. cf. ovata has been partially identified and other metabolites involved in the toxic effects are likely to be produced by the microalgae and require additional studies. Specialized metabolites are also involved in the chemical mediation between organisms and, up to now, the influence of chemical cues on the development of several benthic organisms has rarely been investigated. Therefore, any answers coming from this field named chemical ecology will be of high added value. In this context, the overall objective of OCEAN-15 is to investigate the effects of climate change on the specialized metabolism of these microalgae in order to anticipate the potential modification of its toxic behavior as well as the subsequent ecological interactions that would alter marine ecosystems. This objective fits the societal challenge 1 listed in the ANR 2015 Work Program and more specifically its axis 2 through an interdisciplinary research on "health risks facing environmental changes" bringing useful knowledge to integrative policy in public health. The project OCEAN-15 was subdivided in four main tasks addressing several aspects of the chemical ecology of O. cf. ovata: (1) study of the specialized metabolism, (2) effects of global change on this metabolism, (3) ecological impacts of the metabolism; and (4) toxicological effects and mechanisms associated to the metabolites. A truly collaborative and multidisciplinary effort will help reaching the proposed objectives. In this project, we will combine some of the leading groups in France in the field of marine chemical ecology and metabolomics (ICN), phycotoxin chemistry and ecotoxicology (IFREMER), phytoplanktonic ecology (LOV) as well as human toxicology (ANSES). The capability and success of this consortium has already been demonstrated through the joint participation of the different partners to diverse research groups supported by the CNRS (GdR Phycotox, GdR MediatEC) as well as to international consortium (ISSHA, International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae). Thus, through this synergistic project, we are convinced to bring answers on the impact of global change on Ostreopsis cf. ovata specialized metabolism and thus allelopathy and toxicity. Any answers coming from this project would benefit to the society, as they will help further monitoring of HABs and protecting human health along the touristic Mediterranean coastline.

ANSES and its partners - a consortium bringing together institutions from more than 25 countries and several EU agencies - are preparing a "European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals" in the framework of the next European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation "Horizon Europe" (2021-2027). The objective is to support EU and national chemical risk assessment and risk management bodies with new data, knowledge, methods, networks and skills to address current, emerging and novel chemical safety challenges. It will facilitate the transition to next generation risk assessment to better protect human health and the environment, in line with the Green Deal’s zero-pollution ambition for a toxic free environment and will be an enabler for the future EU “Chemicals Strategy for sustainability”. It builds in part on the work undertaken and experience acquired in the European Joint Programme on Human Biomonitoring (HBM4EU) that is ongoing, but goes beyond by its vocation to establish an EU-wide research and innovation risk assessment hub of excellence and in fine to strengthen European capacity in chemical risk assessment. Impacts related to the specific objectives defined are expected on three levels through: - An EU-wide sustainable cross-disciplinary network to identify and agree on research and innovation needs and support research uptake into regulatory chemical risk assessment. - Joint EU research and innovation activities responding to identified priorities in support of current regulatory risk assessment processes for chemical substances and emerging challenges. - Strengthening existing capacities and building new transdisciplinary platforms to support chemical risk assessment. The Partnership brings together ministries and national public health and risk assessment agencies, as well as research organisations and academia from more than 25 countries. In addition to these national bodies, representatives of Commission Directorates-General and EU agencies involved in the monitoring of chemicals and the assessment of associated risks (including ECHA, EEA, EFSA) are also participating. This Partnership will meet the needs of risk assessment agencies to better anticipate emerging risks and thus respond to the challenges, ambitions and priorities of the new European policies.

The objectives of the BAoBAb project are to better understand bacterial adaptation strategies to disinfectant biocides used in the food industry, to evaluate the impact of this collective adaptation on the development of resistance to antibiotics and to identify the underlying mechanisms. The role of biocides in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) dissemination will also be addressed by investigating the recolonization abilities of AMR variants selected in biofilm during biocide exposure and the impact of biocide residues on horizontal gene transfer in biofilms. For this purpose, an approche combining methods of experimental evolution in biofilm, comparative genomics and advanced fluorescence imaging will be applied. The results will be used to better assess the risk associated with the use of biocides in relation to AMR and ultimately identify molecular and phenotypic markers of adaptation and development of cross-resistance that can be used to develop surveillance tool on the food chain.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease caused by genetic and environmental factors. The latter act firstly as neonatal primers: their exposure during the perinatal period disturbs early maturation of gut microbiota and immune system and induces an increased susceptibility to colitis, called pathological imprinting. Environmental factors act secondly as colitis triggers, causing or worsening colitis development in patients with genetic susceptibility or pathological imprinting. Our hypothesis is that gut luminal microplastics (MPs), which are increasingly present because of expanding human oral MP exposure, belong to environmental UC primers and/or triggers. Indeed, pilot studies detected MPs in neonatal and adult feces, and accumulating data show that ingestion of MPs promote gut inflammation and dysbiosis in mice. Our main aims are:1) To identify in human feces the MPs with pro-inflammatory and pro-dysbiotic properties. Nano-and microplastics will be characterized in control and UC patient feces and correlated with inflammatory calprotectin level and dysbiosis parameters. Combined analyzes will identify a cocktail of MPs with pro-inflammatory and pro-dysbiotic properties thereafter called pro-UC MP cocktail. 2) To assess MP effects on UC pathogenesis either as neonatal primer of UC susceptibility and/or as promoting UC trigger. Pregnant mice will be exposed to the pro-UC MP cocktail and the effects on gut immune response, permeability, microbiota, nano-and microplastic presence in feces, and susceptibility to experimental colitis will be assessed in male and female offspring. These parameters as well as fecal metabolome will be also assessed in response to the pro-UC MP cocktail exposure in gnotobiotic mice colonized with humanized microbiota from control or UC patients. This multidisciplinary project will provide new essential knowledge on human exposure to MPs and their impact on gut homeostasis, particularly in the UC pathophysiology.