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The Teratology Society

Newsletter

New Era - continued from page 6

The key elements of the committee’s vision for the future of toxicity testing are identified the figure below which encompasses both the assessment of toxicity pathways and “targeted testing,” which is designed to clarify and refine information from toxicity pathway tests for use in chemical risk assessments.

For the foreseeable future, some targeted testing in animals will need to continue, as it is not currently possible to understand sufficiently how chemicals are broken down in the body using tests in cells alone.

At the bottom of the figure, dose-response and extrapolation modeling will enable the translation of cellular tests to humans. Specifically, the modeling will estimate environmental exposures that would lead to significant perturbations of toxicity pathways observed in the cellular tests.

Population-based and human exposure data are also key elements of the vision. Collection of biomonitoring data will aid in identifying markers of

human exposure, health effects, and susceptibility that can aid scientists in assessing and responding to chemicals of concern in the environment.

The report emphasizes the importance of evaluating risk contexts—common decision-making scenarios— for which toxicity testing is being conducted. Some risk contexts require rapid screening of thousands of environmental agents, while others require highly refined dose-response modeling for an individual agent.

Implementation of the vision will require coordinated efforts over the next several decades by scientists from government, industry, and universities. A significant funding commitment is needed to create a new national program to conduct the research that will provide the scientific foundation for the next generation of toxicity tests.

Full details of the committee’s vision for toxicity testing in the 21 st century can be found at:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/
onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11970 •

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The Teratology Society Newsletter - page 7

rev. 20-September-2007