Cristelle joined Broughton with toxicological risk assessment expertise in cannabis-based and reduced-risk nicotine products.
Toxicologist with experience in setting up non-clinical safety approaches to support the launch of cannabis, nicotine and other active-containing products
Passionate about supporting the launch of products with the potential to reduce harm and transforming toxicology into science that is easily understood by everyone
Cristelle is a Consultant Toxicologist at Broughton Life Sciences. She has eight years of experience in the field of toxicological risk assessment and forensic/analytical toxicology. Her background includes a BSc in Forensic Sciences from the Egas Moniz School of Health and Science, an MSc in Analytical, Clinical and Forensic Toxicology from the University of Porto, and a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Toxicology from the University of Geneva, in Switzerland.
Christelle started her career as a forensic toxicologist at the anti-doping laboratory in Lisbon, where she conducted routine analytical testing to detect drugs in the urine and blood samples of athletes. During her time at the anti-doping laboratory, she also validated a method to quantify glycerol in urine using GC-MS, which was occasionally used to mask the presence of other drugs by interfering with the analytical techniques used at that time.
In 2016, Cristelle joined British American Tobacco (BAT) within the consumer and product safety department. Her first role was in the vapour team, where she primarily focused on risk assessing ingredient flavourings, e-liquid formulations, device materials, and emissions of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes. After that, she moved into the “beyond nicotine” space, leading the toxicological programme by setting up robust safety strategies to enable the launch of products containing new active ingredients. After establishing this framework, Cristelle moved to Canada to join the product development collaboration between BAT and Organigram, supporting both companies from a toxicological standpoint in delivering superior, reduced-risk cannabis-based products to various markets.
Cristelle joined Broughton at the beginning of 2023, applying her cannabis expertise to lead the toxicological strategies in line with the regulatory requirements to support a range of cannabis-based products to market. In addition, Cristelle has undertaken numerous projects which leverage her nicotine knowledge, including preparing responses to PMTA deficiencies, conducting non-clinical literature reviews for medicinal applications, creating and reviewing toxicity profiles for regulatory submissions, performing Environmental Assessments, and authoring advocacy documents for next-generation products to scientific and government bodies.
Cristelle strongly believes that a variety of reduced-risk nicotine products should be available to smokers to enable their transition to safer options. She is an advocate of the potential benefits of cannabis, not only in the medical space but also as a wellbeing aid. Consequently, she believes these products should be accessible to everyone in different formats. However, she recognises that there is still work to do in this space and that the implementation of robust safety frameworks is required by regulatory bodies to safeguard consumers.
