HYPIEND research was presented at the V PhD Day in Valencia, celebrated on June 10, 2026, an internal congress organised for doctoral students at IIS La Fe to share their research, exchange knowledge and discuss ongoing scientific work.
Elena Garcia-Lorente, PhD Candidate from IIS La Fe, presented the poster “Addressing the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals mixtures on estrogen receptor activity.” The work was carried out together with M. Teresa Donato and Laia Tolosa.
The study addresses an important challenge in endocrine disruption research: people are generally exposed to multiple chemicals simultaneously rather than to individual substances in isolation. Understanding how these compounds interact is therefore essential to assess their potential effects on hormonal systems under more realistic exposure scenarios.
The researchers investigated two environmentally relevant mixtures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) containing compounds from different chemical groups, including parabens, bisphenols, benzophenones, phthalates and pesticides. Using an estrogen-responsive reporter cell line, they assessed both cell viability and activation of the estrogen receptor pathway.
The findings show that chemical mixtures can produce estrogenic responses that differ from those observed for individual compounds, reinforcing the importance of incorporating mixture-based approaches into chemical risk assessment.
Within HYPIEND, this research contributes to the project’s preclinical in vitro toolbox, helping to improve understanding of the biological effects of combined exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and supporting more realistic approaches to assessing their potential impact on human health.
