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How does environmental toxicants affect male fertility? This is one of the questions which will be addressed within the LedFertyl (Lifestyle and environmental determinantes of seminogramas and other male fertility related parameters), a collaborative investigation carried out within the "Rovira i Virgili" University by researchers of the Human Nutrition Unit and TecnATox.

The research team is recruiting 200 volunteers, men between 18 and 40 years of reproductive age. Interested people can send an email to  ledfertyl.nutricio@urv.cat indicating in the subject 'Ledfertyl Recruitment'.

As a member of the RESCOP Commission, Prof. José L. Domingo has just recently published a new article about the role of outdoor and indoor air quality in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the scientific journal Environmental Research.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for maintaining particulate matter concentrations at low levels for multiple health-related reasons, the article emphasizes the importance of adopting preventive measures and applying air purification in indoor environments, such as schools, indoor public places (restaurants, offices, hotels, museums, theatres/cinemas etc.).

RESCOP is the first Thematic Commisson on COVID-19 & Outdoor/Indoor Air Quality (RESCOP Commission), promoted by the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA) and formed by a large number of international researchers.

From the beginning of the pandemics, Prof. Domingo and other TecnATox researchers have been very active in understanding the links between indoor/outdoor exposure to air pollutants and SARS-CoV-2. This activity has led Prof. Domingo to be the URV (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) investigator with more scientific publications on SARS-CoV-2, according to Scopus database.

Dr. Montse Marquès has just published a new collaborative manuscript in Marine Pollution Bulletin, co-authored by researchers from the University of Girona and several French research institutions. The study, which was focused on the swordfish of the Catalan Sea, applied a multi method approach that considers their diet, their liver lipid content, and mercury accumulation in their bodies as well as in their prey. The aim was to highlight the links between trophic ecology, physiology (fish condition), and eco-toxicology.

Dr. Mònica Bulló and Dr. Christopher Papandreou, researchers at the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV), have obtained an international project funded by the Alzheimer's Association (US) for the identification of metabolic markers of risk and progression for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. This study, coordinated by Dr. Bulló, Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the URV, in collaboration with ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona, ​​Pablo de Olavide University and the University of Barcelona, ​​represents a great opportunity to identify early biomarkers of disease but also new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer, a highly prevalent and growing incident disease for which no effective treatment is yet available. With this study, the researchers from the NUMED group, ascribed to the Nutrition and Mental Health Research group, TecnATox technological center and CIBER, will provide all their experience acquired over years of research in cardiometabolic diseases including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, to improve the prevention and treatment of dementia and Alzheimer's diseases that usually co-occur with cardiovascular risk factors.

On February 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Dr. Montse Marquès will take part of 100tífiques, the outreach event aimed at giving visibility to women in STEM organized by Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI) and the Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST). She will give a talk about her research activity to 6th grade students of the Elementary Education School Teresa Miquel i Pàmies (Reus, Catalonia).

TecnATox researchers have just published a new review in the MDPI open-access journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In this new article, the authors discussed the microbiota–gut–brain biological interplay and analysed the role of different endocrine-disrupting chemicals on the subsequent neurotoxicity.