Founded by REACH&Colours Italia
Period: 2013-2016
Recently, an agreement has been finalised between REACH&Colours Italia Srl (Milano) and Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca (UNIMIB) with the aim of developing a new software, innovative, revolutionary and specifically oriented for the study of organic dyes, able to model the quantitative relations between molecular structure and specific properties of dye molecules (Q-SAR).
REACH&Colours Italia, together with REACHMastery Srl consulting, is the technical and administrative manager of the three European REACH Dyes Consortia, which count as members the most known multinationals in the dyes sector, owners of a high number of toxicological and eco-toxicological studies on dye substances.
Thanks to these existing studies (which count up to 6000) and to the new studies that are/will be performed by Consortia Members for the REACH registration of more than 600 dyes within May 2018, it has been possible, for the first time, to build a concrete and sound database, which is continuously updated and implemented. It is the database the real strong point on which the new software will be developed, and that, by means of statistical and chemometrics calculations has the final aim of predicting reliable estimations of the effects that similar substances to those contained in the database, could produce on humans and the environment. These estimations will remove the need of performing new studies, by saving animals, time and costs to all the involved parties.
In agreement with the requirements of the REACH Regulation, and in particular as explained in the guidelines provided by the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, Professor Roberto Todeschini and his Chemometrics and Q-SAR research team have been studying and implementing new methods of calculations, based on structural similarities, analysed through new molecular descriptors and models of classifications.
Actually, the existing softwares are not built to model ionic complex structures as the organic dyes are, and therefore they cannot supply reliable results that are usually strongly extrapolated. Thanks to the high quality experimental data provided by the database that REACH&Colours Italia has implemented, Prof. Todeschini group is developing a new Q-SAR software for the evaluation of the dyes properties, overcoming the problems of the existing softwares, and able to supply valuable information for the identification of the potentially dangerous substances.
| QSAR software for the study of dyes properties |
| SafeRubber |
Grant agreement no.: 2-243756 Founded by the European Community Call: SME-2008 University of Milano-Bicocca founded by: € 393120.00 The SafeRubber project has received EC funding under the FP7 framework to develop a new, safe, multifunctional accelerator curative molecule which can replace thiourea-based accelerators in the vulcanisation process. Thirteen partners are participating in the SafeRubber research project; the excellent partnership has a mix of SME-AGs (BRPPA, Fed, Assoc and ETRMA). The detailed descriptions of the project is available at the web site: http://www.saferubber.eu/ |
| Environmental ChemOinformatics (ECO) |
Grant agreement no.: 238701 Founded by the European Community: Marie Curie Initial Training Networks Call: FP7-PEOPLE-ITN-2008 University of Milano-Bicocca founded by: € 518332.00 Environmental ChemOinformatic (ECO) Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) is a collaborative action of 7 institutions from 5 EU countries (Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy). The primary objective of this ITN is to contribute to the education of environmental chemo-informaticians who will receive an advanced training in both environmental sciences and computational in silico methods. The fellows of the network are expected to apply their knowledge for the implementation of REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) in particular with respect to the replacement, refinement and reduction of animal tests by alternative (in silico and in vitro) methods. |
| Development of chemoinformatics tools for screening and identification of Persistent Bioaccumulable and Toxic (PBTs) compounds and Endocrine Disruptors (EDs) for REACH regulation. |
Principal Investigator: Prof. Roberto Todeschini Founded by Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca (PRIN 2007, code: 2007R57KT7) University of Milano-Bicocca founded by: € 55000.00 Partner: Università dell'Insubria, Prof. Paola Gramatica Period: 2008-2009 |
| VICIM: Virtual Institute for Chemometrics and Industrial Metrology |
Grant agreement no.: GTC1-2001-43030 Founded by the European Community University of Milano-Bicocca founded by: Period: 2001-2004 The Virtual Institute for Chemometrics and Industrial Metrology, VICIM BV is a virtual organisation that promotes cost-effective chemical measurement practices by making use of modern chemometric approaches and develops procedures for adequate assessment of the quality of methods and measurement results. |