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Symposium 28: The interconnection between Human and Planetary Health

Tracks
Track 4
Friday, July 17, 2026
11:15 AM - 1:15 PM

Details

This symposium will explore the critical link between human and planetary health, focusing on the emerging threat that pharmaceutical pollution poses to ecosystems and human well-being. Medicines can persist in the environment (e.g., wastewater, soil), bioaccumulating through food webs and potentially disrupting biodiversity. Molecular targets for human drugs are often conserved across species, and therefore, pharmaceuticals designed for human use can elicit harmful responses in non-target species, especially aquatic organisms. These ecological disturbances can affect species diversity and planetary health. Similarly, pollutants like plastic chemicals can interfere with physiological signalling in both human and non-human species, exacerbating health risks. This symposium will discuss the need for innovative solutions to reduce bioactive contaminants alongside sustainable healthcare education and practices to promote a healthier future for humans and the environment.


Speaker

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Prof Martina Schmidt
University Groningen

Impact of air pollutants on GPCR signaling and localization

Biography

My research focus on clustered signaling pathways of molecular partners in defined subcellular compartments (signalosomes) that enables cells to exert highly specialized tasks. Actually, our goal for the future is to unravel the organization of the recently discovered signaling components within functional units by biochemical, molecular, cell biological methods, genetic and omic’s. Research is embedded in the field of integrative pharmacology and translational medicine. We have directed our attention to chronic inflammatory disorders, as evidence exist for a role of our signaling components (Epac, PLD, AKAP, cofilin) in smooth muscle cells, neuronal cells, immune cells as well as cardiomyocytes. Many devastating diseases, e.g. cancer, type-II diabetes mellitus, Alzheimers’s dementia, cardiovascular and airway diseases (heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, developmental defects, asthma and COPD), and infection diseases are associated with defective or derailed signaling processes, and research into the control of these processes clearly is of great public and social importance as well. My research group integrates in vivo, ex vivo translational pharmacology, molecular (cell) biology. Novel techniques like microfluidics, precision cut tissue slices and others.

Session chair

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Manuela Jörg
Medicinal Chemistry, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University

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Lauren May
Monash University

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