From the beginning (1983), the Workshop has been an important international gathering in the fields of Environmental and Health Sciences, bringing together people developing and using (Q)SARs to explain the behaviour of chemicals in nature and in living organisms. The workshop has attained great recognition as a forum that helps to build common understanding and solutions in explaining the influence of chemical structure on various physical, chemical, biological, and health endpoints, as well as in understanding system chemistry and, at the end of the line, contributes to the improvement of quality of life.
(Q)SARs in Environmental and Health Sciences have seen growth in the methodology and range of applications, bringing together concepts and ideas from chemistry, biology, medicine, mathematics, and computer science. (Q)SARs have also stepped out from the academic and industrial scientific research environments to be used in legislative decision support for chemical safety. Interdisciplinary nature and a growing use are the driving forces of the field, bringing new ideas to the scientific community for effective characterization, screening and design of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and materials.
The five days in Tallinn, from 18 to 22 June 2012, gave us lively discussions, exchange of experience and information on novel and emerging research results in QSARs. The kick-off of the workshop was given with the opening lectures from David Livingstone (ChemQuest, UK) and Alexander Tropsha (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA). In total the workshop delivered 52 plenary talks and oral presentations, a round table discussion, and 82 poster presentations [see: http://qsar2012.ut.ee/]. Workshop sessions were grouped under the following titles:
| • | Modelling challenges for nanomaterials | ||||
| • | Modelling environmental toxicity and fate | ||||
| • | Integrating ADME predictions into predictive toxicology | ||||
| • | Prediction of chronic toxicity and organ level effects | ||||
| • | Novel (Q)SAR approaches | ||||
| • | Safety and risk assessment solutions for food and cosmetics | ||||
| • | Cheminformatics solutions for environmental and health sciences | ||||
| • | Toxicology data, curation and mining | ||||
| • | Read-across as a solution for filling data gaps | ||||
| • | Adverse outcome pathways and future perspectives of (Q)SAR | ||||
| • | Regulatory use of (Q)SARs | ||||
The papers published in this special issue reflect the diversity of the topics presented during QSAR2012. All the presentations, including the invited plenary lectures, have been peer reviewed by at least two referees according to the policy of the journal.
A total of 140 participants from 22 countries attended the meeting. From them, 16% were students. The distribution according to the type of affiliation was the following: 62% not-for profit organizations (universities and research institutes), 15% from governmental institutions (regulatory agencies, etc.), and 23% from profit organizations (chemical companies, software providers, etc.).
The workshop continued the tradition of the International QSAR Award. The award was presented to Terry Wayne Schultz (University of Tennessee, USA), in recognition of his outstanding and significant contributions to the advancement of QSARs in environmental sciences (see following article for details).
The workshop also continued the tradition of student awards started in 2006, this time in two categories. The award for best student oral presentation was given to Denitsa Georgieva (University “Prof. As. Zlatarov”, Bulgaria), in recognition for outstanding presentation: Prioritization of chemicals according to their PBT profile. The award for best student poster presentation was given to Danielle Newby (Universities of Kent and Greenwich, UK), in recognition for outstanding presentation: Reducing false positives in oral absorption models. The awards included registration refund for the QSAR2012 workshop.
The QSAR2012 organizing committee says ‘Thank You!’ to all participants of the workshop; you and your contributions and active involvement have made the workshop a reality!
Since Day One of workshop preparation all organization effort was shared with Maikki Moosus and Sulev Sild, as full members of the organizing committee. Everything worked so well at the conference site because of our local support team: Geven Piir, Mare Oja, Riinu Ansper, Villu Ruusmann, Iirsi Kahn, and Alfonso T. García-Sosa.
QSAR2012 was standing strongly on the shoulders of the former organizers of this workshop series, i.e., the International Steering Committee, their support and insights into the kitchen of previous workshops are greatly acknowledged: James Devillers, president (CTIS, France); Roger Breton, secretary (Intrinsik Environmental Sciences, Inc., Canada); Mark Cronin (Liverpool John Moores University, UK); Jay Tunkel (SRC Inc., USA); and Kannan Krishnan (Université de Montréal, Canada).
QSAR2012 was helped in many ways by the financial support of the following sponsors: Simulation Plus Inc. [www.simulations-plus.com], Taylor & Francis (student awards) [www.taylorandfrancis.com], and Soluzioni Informatiche Srl [www.s-in.it/en/]. The Organizers of QSAR2012 are also grateful to the City of Tallinn and University of Tartu, for providing various logistic and administrative support.
This International Workshop series is a community effort, not lead by any organization, but by the informal community that has developed over the years of the workshop. The success of the Workshop series continuously depends on your contributions and active participation.
The 16th International Workshop on QSAR in Environmental and Health Sciences (QSAR2014) will be held in Milan, Italy, June 16-20, 2014 and hosted by Emilio Benfenati (Mario Negri Institute).
Next meeting point is Milan!