Open Access

Ulrike Schulte-Oehlmann, Triantafyllos Albanis, Axel Allera, Jean Bachmann, Pia Berntsson, Nicola Beresford, Daniela Candia Carnevali, Francesca Ciceri, Thierry Dagnac, Jerzy Falandysz, Silvana Galassi, David Hala, Gemma Janer, Roger Jeannot, Susan Jobling, Isabella King, Dietrich Klingmüller, Werner Kloas, Kresten Ole Kusk, Ramon Levada, Susan Lo, Ilka Lutz, Jörg Oehlmann, Stina Oredsson, Cinta Porte, Marian Rand-Weaver, Vasilis Sakkas, Michela Sugni, Charles Tyler, Ronny van Aerle, Christoph van Ballegoy, Leah Wollenberger

• Tens of thousands of man-made chemicals are in regular use and discharged into the environment. Many of them are known to interfere with the hormonal systems in humans and wildlife. Given the complexity of endocrine systems, there are many ways in which endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can affect the body’s signaling system, and this makes unraveling the mechanisms of action of these chemicals difficult. A major concern is that some of these EDCs appear to be biologically active at extremely low concentrations. There is growing evidence to indicate that the guiding principle of traditional toxicology that “the dose makes the poison” may not always be the case because some EDCs do not induce the classical dose–response relationships. The European Union project COMPRENDO (Comparative Research on Endocrine Disrupters—Phylogenetic Approach and Common Principles focussing on Androgenic/Antiandrogenic Compounds) therefore aims to develop an understanding of potential health problems posed by androgenic and antiandrogenic compounds (AACs) to wildlife and humans by focusing on the commonalities and differences in responses to AACs across the animal kingdom (from invertebrates to vertebrates).