Jonathan Nicolas

Dr. Jonathan Nicolas is a toxicology researcher specializing in marine neurotoxins and alternative testing methods. After completing his MSc from the University of Western Brittany and PhD from Wageningen University, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Toxicology at Wageningen University. His research focuses on developing innovative in vitro methods to detect marine biotoxins in seafood, particularly working to replace traditional animal testing methods. His groundbreaking work includes developing a cardiomyocyte-based screening system for neurotoxins and exploring new functional endpoints in neuro-2a cells for marine toxin detection. He has made significant contributions to understanding how marine neurotoxins like saxitoxin and tetrodotoxin affect cellular systems, demonstrating that stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes can serve as sensitive models for neurotoxin detection. His expertise extends to cell toxicology, ecotoxicology, and food safety monitoring, with particular emphasis on developing high-throughput screening methods. Currently, he applies his expertise at Syngenta, continuing his work in toxicology and alternative testing methods. His research has been instrumental in advancing the field of marine biotoxin detection, particularly in light of the European ban on in vivo bioassays since 2015.