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Computational Modeling and Simulation of Developmental Toxicity: what can we learn from a virtual embryo? (RIVM, Brussels)
Citation:
Knudsen, T. Computational Modeling and Simulation of Developmental Toxicity: what can we learn from a virtual embryo? (RIVM, Brussels). Presented at National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, NETHERLANDS, February 17, 2017. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.5057875
Impact/Purpose:
This was an invited seminar presentation to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) on EPA/NCCTs progress on the 'virtual embryo'. The Netherlands. RIVM promotes public health and consumer safety, and helps to protect the quality of the environment. RIVM collects and collates knowledge and information from various sources and place it at the disposal of policy makers, researchers, regulatory authorities and the general public. This includes information on developmental and reproductive toxicity testing using alternative (non-animal) methods.
Description:
Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity (DART) testing is important for assessing the potential consequences of drug and chemical exposure on human health and well-being. Complexity of pregnancy and the reproductive cycle makes DART testing challenging and costly for traditional (animal-based) methods. A compendium of in vitro data from ToxCast/Tox21 high-throughput screening (HTS) programs is available for predictive toxicology. ‘Predictive DART’ will require an integrative strategy that mobilizes HTS data into in silico models that capture the relevant embryology. This lecture addresses progress on EPA's 'virtual embryo'. The question of how tissues and organs are shaped during development is crucial for understanding (and predicting) human birth defects. While ToxCast HTS data may predict developmental toxicity with reasonable accuracy, mechanistic models are still necessary to capture the relevant biology. Subtle microscopic changes induced chemically may amplify to an adverse outcome but coarse changes may override lesion propagation in any complex adaptive system. Modeling system dynamics in a developing tissue is a multiscale problem that challenges our ability to predict toxicity from in vitro profiling data (ToxCast/Tox21). (DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the US EPA).
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Computational Modeling and Simulation of Developmental Toxicity: what can we learn from a virtual embryo? (RIVM, Brussels)
RIVM_PRESENTATION_KNUDSEN_2017_M.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 4827.607 KB, about PDF)