Paul THOMAS, a European Registered Toxicologist, has a PhD in aquatic ecotoxicology and more than 25 years' experience with industrial chemicals, agrochemicals and biocides gained initially at CIT (now Charles River) where he set up the ecotoxicology service and was study director for 4 years, ATOFINA (now ARKEMA) where he practiced ecotoxicology and Risk Assessment for existing substances and then AkzoNobel (now Nouryon) where he was head of department, head of the ecotoxicology GLP and research laboratories and organiser of REACH services for the company for over 6 years. He joined a French consultancy in 2008 as director of the Lyon office specialising in REACH-related services and manager of the ecotoxicology team and contributed strongly to numerous successful registrations out of the >600 substances the consultancy registered since 2010 and he has worked in the area of predictive ecotoxicology since this time. In 2014, while retaining all his consultancy roles, Paul founded and is President of KREATiS, a company specialising in the creation of high accuracy QSARs and other in silico models, to replace experimentation for REACH and other regulations. In 2020 he bought the company together with a human health expert, Dr Carole Charmeau, and they have worked hard with the KREATiS team to bring the company to new heights, adding multiple models to their iSafeRat® model suite, and embracing new technologies such as machine learning and 3D docking models for studying protein-ligand interactions.
Paul THOMAS, PhD, ERT
President, Model Developer and Expert Ecotoxicologist
Carole CHARMEAU-GENEVOIS PhD, ERT
Managing Director and Expert Toxicologist
Carole CHARMEAU holds a PhD in Toxicology and is qualified as a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT). She has 20 years of experience with industrial chemicals and agrochemicals gained at IARC and then in industry and consulting. She joined CEHTRA in 2008 as a senior toxicologist to strengthen the REACH team at Lyon, providing strategy to assess the hazard of chemicals for human health using alternative methods such as read-across and weight of evidence approach. Carole is also specialised in the derivation of Derived No Effect Levels (DNEL) for the human. She developped the IFRA consumer exposure scenarios guidance (2011) and was involved in ECHA’s project for the consumer risk assessment developing scenarios in ConsExpo to be imported in CHESAR. Since 2016, Carole has participated in human health R&D projects at KREATiS, a daughter company of CEHTRA created in 2014 and specialised in the development of High Accuracy In-Silico models to predict regulatory experimental endpoints such as skin/eye irritation potential or skin sensitisation potential of chemicals. In January 2018, Carole joined KREATiS as Managing Director of the company and in 2020 she became company owner together with an ecotoxicology expert, Dr Paul Thomas, and together with the KREATiS team they have worked hard with to bring the company to new heights in a quest to create and offer the most accurate state-of-the-science models possible.
Franklin BAUER, PhD
Model Developer and Senior Biochemist
Franklin BAUER obtained his Master’s and Engineer’s degree in organic, bioorganic and therapeutic chemistry from National Graduate School of Chemistry of Mulhouse (ENSCMu) in 2014. During his studies, he gained a strong knowledge of organic chemistry and also learned molecular modelling, software programming and chemical analysis methods. Between december 2014 and december 2017, he did a PhD fellowship in collaboration with KREATiS and University of Haute-Alsace, thanks to a "CIFRE", a funding from French government. This PhD focussed on a better characterisation of mecanisms of toxic action based on the molecular structure. Since then, Franklin is working at KREATiS on QSAR models and software development.
Zlatomir TODOROV, PhD
Computational Chemist
Zlatomir has an interdisciplinary training in biology and informatics starting with a diploma in life science from the University of Lyon in 2011 followed by a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Perpignan and a Master’s degree at the University of Montpellier in 2014 specializing in bioinformatics. He obtained a PhD in Structural biology and Nanobiology in 2019 from the University of Grenoble on an ambitious molecular modeling project. During this period, he studied the molecular function of mammalian Kir3 channels using high-throughput molecular dynamics simulations, related computational techniques and wet-lab experiments.
Zlatomir joined the KREATiS team in mid-2019 to manage the in-situ 3D molecular modeling capabilities of the company especially in its Endocrine Disruption project. The department aims at providing our clients with prediction services for quantified characterization of the interactions between small molecules and selected biological targets. Currently available or in the pipeline: de-novo and homology modeling, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations and computation of the free energies of interaction in molecular complexes.
Emel AY-ALBRECHT, PhD
Data Scientist and Organic Chemist
Emel AY-ALBRECHT, received her PhD in organic chemistry in 2012 and joined the Nakamura group at the University of Tokyo (Japan) as a postdoctoral fellow working on OLED/organic dyes development. Afterwards, she worked for 3 years at the Mulhouse Materials Science Institute (IS2M) in Prof. Jacques Lalevée’s group in the field of photochemistry as a research engineer in collaboration with PEPSI-Co. More recently, she completed a 6-month internship in Deep Learning at IRIMAS under the supervision of Prof. Germain Forestier as part of her Master’s degree in Mathematics and Data Sciences. We were delighted to welcome Emel to our team in September, bolstering our efforts to create the best physical chemistry QSARs possible and many more projects in which we will integrate the most positive aspects of machine learning.
Gaspard LEVET, PhD
In Silico Consultant & Organic Chemist
Gaspard Levet obtained his engineering degree in Chemistry and Process Engineering from the school CPE in Lyon in 2017. Throughout his studies, he participated in a research project on TNCQ derivatives at Durham University during an Erasmus exchange and an internship at CEMES laboratory in Toulouse focusing on the organic synthesis of acene precursors resulting in two scientific publications. From 2018 to 2021, he did a PhD on the functionalisation and use of cyclodextrin derivatives as organophosphorus nerve agent detoxifying agents (pesticides/chemical weaponry). After a short post-doc, he joined KREATiS in January 2022 to help boost the knowledge of the company on mechanisms of action of toxic molecules. He now work as a project manager developing and updating our models and has extensively contributed to tools such as MechoA Premium and iSafeRat® CLASS. He is also a recognised trainer for our QUALIOPI accredited in silico training. Last but not least, he provides in silico expertise for our clients in chemistry, toxicology and ecotoxicology.
Floriane LARRAS, PhD
In silico Consultant & Senior Ecotoxicologist
Floriane LARRAS obtained her PhD in aquatic ecotoxicology in 2013 from the University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France. In 2014, she joined the University of Lorraine, France, as a post-doctoral fellow to develop models estimating risk for microalgal and macroinvertrebrate stream communities exposed to stressors.
Then, in 2016, she obtained a Marie Curie grant to work at the UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, to investigate molecular mechanisms involved in microbial community responses to pesticides. She also contributed to the development of a tool managing omics dose-response curves for ecological risk assessment.
In 2021, she joined the French national institute for agriculture food and environment (INRAE) to investigate the use of effect modelling approaches in phytopharmaceutical products European regulation. She joined KREATiS in June 2022 to continue our work on ecotoxicological QSARs.
Marie DARRACQ-GHITALLA-CIOCK, PhD
In silico consultant and toxicologist
Marie Darracq-Ghitalla-Ciock obtained her Pharmacy degree in 2020 from the University of Angers. During her studies, she specialized in toxicology, environmental toxicology, and ecotoxicology through a master’s degree in Grenoble-Alpes University. She also took part in different ecotoxicological research projects in Wageningen University & Research and in the Laboratory of Alpine Ecology. In 2023, she obtained her PhD in physiology, physiopathology and pharmacology from Grenoble-Alpes University, where she studied impacts of an endocrine disruptor mixture on metabolism, neurodevelopment, and reproduction through a transgenerational rat model. Further to a teaching assistant position in biostatistics and chemistry that she held for a year at the Pharmacy Faculty of University Grenoble-Alpes, she joined KREATiS in December 2023. Her mission is to work on all levels of human health modelling including initiating our next major challenge in mammalian toxicology.
Antoine CHARMEAU
Software developer
Antoine is an IT engineer who graduated fom UTBM (Université de Technologie Belfort-Montbéliard) in 2022, specialising in software development. He's been working with KREATiS since mid-2017. He is one of the main contributors behind the development of KREATiS' tools iSafeRat® Online and iSafeRat® Desktop.
Lili TURBAN
Design engineer
Lili TURBAN is an engineer graduated from UTBM (Université de Technologie Belfort-Montbéliard) in Ergonomy, Industrial Desing and Mechanical Engineering. She joined KREATiS in July 2023 to design the interface and manage the project of the application SafePAC by KREATiS, a tool dedicated to the professionals of packaging and cosmetic products to assess the risks for human Health of the chemicals migrating from the packaging into the cosmetic product.