Cynthia V. Rider, NIEHS/DTT

Emanuela Corsini, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Each year, the SOT Annual Meeting includes a debate in which leading toxicologists advocate opposing sides of an issue that has significant toxicological importance. The debate continues a tradition that originated in the early 1990s. This year, the debaters will address the proposition, “Can the microbiome mediate the toxicity of environmental chemicals?” The debaters will provide an introduction to the intestinal microbiome and discuss how the community of microorganisms in our bodies could potentially influence the harmful effects of chemicals. Debaters will address questions such as: (1) “Are microbiome-induced changes in chemical concentrations toxicologically meaningful?”; (2) “Are the effects of chemicals on the microbiome more important than the effects of the microbiome on chemicals?”; (3) “Does person-to-person variability make it impossible for us to understand the impact of the microbiome on chemicals?”; and (4) “Do model systems and organisms effectively reflect human microbiome-chemical interactions? In addition to inclusion as a Featured Session at this meeting, this debate will take place again (with the debaters taking the reverse positions) in Copenhagen, Denmark, during EUROTOX 2024, September 8–11.