Title
Toxicology in the 21st century - Working our way towards a visionary reality
Author
Berg, N.
de Wever, B.
Fuchs, H.W.
Gaca, M.
Krul, C.A.M.
Roggen, E.L.
Publication year
2011
Abstract
In November 2009 the In Vitro Testing Industrial Platform (IVTIP) organized a meeting entitled '. Toxicology in the 21st century - working our way towards a visionary reality'. Participating delegates included scientists, key opinion leaders, developers and users of 3Rs-related tests and testing strategies. This paper summarizes the discussions with respect to the conditions required to move the vision towards an applicable reality. It should not be considered as a comprehensive review of technologies that could be relevant for moving the in vitro testing and risk assessment field forward.Overall, the US National Research Council (NRC) vision and strategy for toxicity testing in the 21st century was unanimously considered as the right approach to enable future toxicity testing without animal experimentation. Many elements of this vision were identified in the European initiatives aimed at the development of non-animal based methods. However, the need for concerted actions moving the current state-of-the-art towards a thorough, reliable and systematic approach to future toxicity testing was made evident by the discussions.Among the difficulties and hurdles on the way forward, the lack of physiologically relevant, metabolic competent and robust in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro models of both healthy and diseased people was frequently mentioned. In addition, there was a call for immediate implementation of emerging technologies and paradigms considered to be essential for transferring the vision into the reality of a toxicity-testing system assessing biologically significant perturbations in key pathways which are relevant for human biology. While the unique strengths of each of the available and emerging technologies was recognized, integration of available data and emerging technologies to integrated testing strategies (ITS) was highlighted as the preferred way forward. Method harmonization and standardization, as well as procedures and guidelines for putting together ITS, were urgently requested in order to facilitate proper implementation and acceptance.There was an urgent call for better coordination of the efforts that are ongoing or initiated in the 3Rs arena at national and international level. Education, training, communication and dissemination were addressed. It was recognised that the EPAA, through its 'Platform for Communication and Dissemination', has a very important and central role in this area. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.
Subject
Healthy living
Biomedical Innovations
Themalijn
Health
-Omics
21st Century vision
3Rs
Computational
In vitro
Replacement
Testing strategy
Toxicity testing
Validation
article
biological model
education
Europe
ex vivo study
financial management
in vitro study
in vivo study
interpersonal communication
leadership
medical research
practice guideline
risk assessment
standardization
systems biology
toxicity testing
toxicology
validation process
Animalia
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c8872256-fb21-4600-adfe-c88d00ca6731
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tiv.2011.02.008
TNO identifier
429700
ISSN
0887-2333
Source
Toxicology in Vitro, 25 (4), 874-881
Document type
article