Hugo van Kessel is a PhD Candidate at the Division of Drug Discovery & Safety (DDS) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bob van de Water and Dr. Giulia Callegaro. I obtained a BSc and MSc degree in bio-pharmaceutical sciences with a specialization in Drug & Target Discovery from Leiden University. During my MSc internships at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), I created fluorescent-based oxidative stress response reporter cell lines for chemical safety assessment and generated and analyzed single-cell transcriptomic data of follicular lymphoma patients to localize somatic variants in subpopulations, respectively. Currently, I am working on the development and application of a toxicogenomic-based new approach method (NAM) within the RISK-HUNTER3R (https://www.risk-hunt3r.eu/) consortium to progress the reduction and replacement of animals research in chemical safety assessment. To interpret high dimensional whole transcriptome data, we use weighted correlation network analysis to cluster genes of unknown function into groups based on co-expression patterns. This model allows for high-throughput in vitro mechanism-based hazard identification and hypothesis generation of new chemical entities.