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Behavioral Toxicology in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities for Behavioral Scientists
Citation:
BUSHNELL, P. J., R. J. KAVLOCK, K. M. CROFTON, B. Weiss, AND D. C. Rice. Behavioral Toxicology in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities for Behavioral Scientists. NEUROTOXICOLOGY AND TERATOLOGY. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 32(3):313-328, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
This manuscript summarizes the presentations given in a symposium at the NBTS meeting in June of 2009. The present century will bring about significant changes in toxicity testing. The new research paradigm proposed by the National Research Council (NRC) greatly reduces the magnitude of conventional whole-animal testing, leaving in doubt the roles and responsibilities of toxicologists studying whole-animal models, and particularly those with expertise in behavior analysis.
Description:
The National Research Council of the National Academies of Science recently published a report of its vision of toxicity testing in the 21st Century. The report proposes that the current toxicity testing paradigm that depends upon whole-animal tests be replaced with a strategy based upon in vitro tests, in silico models and evaluations of toxicity at the human population level. These goals are intended to set in motion changes that will transform risk assessment into a process in which adverse effects on public health are predicted by QSAR models and data from suites of high-throughput in vitro tests. The potential roles for whole-animal testing in this futuristic vision are both various and undefined. A symposium was convened at the annual meeting of the Neurobehavioral Teratology Society in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico in June, 2009 to discuss the potential challenges and opportunities for behavioral scientists in developing and/or altering this strategy toward the ultimate goal of protecting public health from hazardous chemicals.
