You are here:
CAROLINA CENTER FOR COMPUTATIONAL TOXICOLOGY: ASSAYS, MODELS AND TOOLS FOR NEXTGEN SAFETY ASSESSMENTS
Impact/Purpose:
The Carolina Center for Computational Toxicology (http://comptox.unc.edu) is a broad, interdisciplinary partnership with a mission to devise novel experimental approaches and computational tools/methods with direct relevance to EPA’s research and regulatory objectives. We will continue our productive research in support of Tox21 and NexGen by focusing on the following Objectives: (1) Develop a quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) approach to probe differential chemical effects in a population-based in vitro system; (2) Provide the computational toxicology solutions for risk characterization in NexGen assessments with a focus on point-of-departure and population variability; and (3) Develop cheminformatics-based, as well as enhanced chemical-biological, models of in vivo reproductive and developmental toxicity that rely on concomitant exploration of chemical descriptors and population-based screening data.
Description:
The Center will develop new methods and tools, and will continue to collaborate closely with EPA, Tox21 and other environmental scientists. New in vitro populationbased assays and computer-based models that fill critical gaps in risk assessment will be developed and delivered. The emphasis will be placed on their usability by the risk assessment community and the investigative toxicologists alike. The synthesis of data from a variety of sources will move the field of computational toxicology from a hypothesis-driven toward predictive science.