Mechanistic modelling for ecotoxicology and ecology

DEBtox Researc



Welcome to DEBtox Research


DEBtox Research is the private company that I (Tjalling Jager) operate since January 2015 to offer my knowledge and expertise on mechanistic modelling to customers. My mission is to strengthen the scientific foundation of ecotoxicology, environmental risk assessment, and life-history ecology, by the application of mechanistic models. Mechanistic modelling attempts to provide a (simplistic) explanation for the observed behaviour of the organism, rather than just describing it. Thereby, we gain a deeper understanding of the organism and the stressors affecting it. In turn, this understanding can help us to make educated extrapolations to untested situations. This is where fundamental research meets application!

My specialty is in the development and application of toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic models (at the level of the individual), in particular, models based on Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory (more specifically: DEBkiss and DEBtox) and the General Unified Threshold model for Survival (GUTS). These models can be applied to a wide range of species (in principle: all), and an enormous range of fundamental and applied research questions. More information on the type of activities that I have to offer can be found on the activities page.

I also maintain the sites debtox.info and openguts.info which contain much more detailed information about these models, as well as links to free e-books, software, and lists of relevant publications. This website is dedicated to my project activities.





News


  • 17 April 2024: the Autumn course on TKTD modelling will run in October/November 2024 with an on-line and on-site (in Denmark) part. More information available from Copenhagen University.
  • 27 April 2023: the Summer/Autumn school on TKTD modelling will not run in 2023, but is postponed to 2024. More info will become available here.
  • 3 March 2023: new installation file for version 1.1 of the openGUTS standalone has been released. See openGUTS download page. This version does not trigger the (false-positive) trojan warning that was thrown by some virus scanners with the previous version.
  • 4 July 2022: Take a look at the DeEP tool for EPx predictions with DEBtox2019. Note that this tool does not perform calibrations or validations on data sets, but rather makes EPx predictions for exposure profiles, such as those from FOCUS.


DEBtox Research, www.debtox.nl, Chamber of Commerce Utrecht 62405055, email: tjalling (at) debtox.nl