Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century – Beyond Environmental Chemicals
Date and location:
3rd -5th June 2012, Hotel Belvedere, Ranco, Italy
Background
When the EPA asked the National Academies to develop a vision for toxicity testing that would be more predictive of human outcomes, the committee promoted the identification of pathways of toxicity specifically focused on environmental chemicals. However, animal models are also used for drug development, efficacy and safety assessment, testing food additives and biologicals. Many of the same concerns about animal models and tests apply to these other areas. These include lack of relevance of the findings in animals to humans resulting in failure of therapeutics in clinical trials, the need for more predictive tests with the expanding concerns over food safety and health effects of food additives, and the increasing need for better methods for testing biologicals.
Goals of the workshop
This workshop – part of the transatlantic think tank of toxicology (t4) – will address the needs of the pharmaceutical, biological and food industries for more predictive methods for assessing the effects of various therapeutics and food additives on humans. Discussion will focus on the major points addressed in the NRC report as they apply to testing of environmental chemicals and address ways to adapt the principles developed in the report the specific needs of other industries and regulatory agencies. A report of the workshop that reflects the discussions and recommendations of the participants will be published in the journal ALTEX.