Toxic testing: robotic system screens thousands
Ezine
- Published: Mar 15, 2011
- Author: David Bradley
- Channels: Chemometrics & Informatics
Robot protectionA new high-speed robotic screening system for chemical toxicity testing was recently unveiled by collaborating US federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health. The system will screen some 10,000 different chemicals for putative toxicity in what represents the first phase of the "Tox21" program aimed at protecting human health and improving chemical testing.The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its 27 institutes and centres in conjunction with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and others have launched a new phase in their Tox21 collaboration. The robot system is housed in the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) in Rockville, Maryland, and was funded under Tox21, an initiative established in 2008 between the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National Toxicology Program (NTP), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and the EPA; the FDA joined the collaboration in 2010. Essentially, Tox21 amalgamated agency resources, including research, funding, and testing tools, with the aim of developing more effective methods for predict how different substances might influence human health and the environment. 10,000 chemicalsThe robot system is set to test 10,000 chemicals found commonly in industrial and consumer products as well as food additives and pharmaceutical products. The 10,000 were chosen based on a thorough analysis and a prioritization process that probed more than 200 public databases of chemicals and drugs used across the globe. The proponents of the robot testing system hope that it will provide evidence-based information useful in evaluating whether or not a wide range of chemicals has the potential to disrupt human body processes enough to lead to adverse health effects. The outcomes could influence safety regulations and federal policy on particular compounds and vindicate others that have an unwarranted reputation for potential harm."Tox21 has used robots to screen chemicals since 2008 [more than 2,500 tested so far], but this new robotic system is dedicated to screening a much larger compound library," explains NHGRI Director Eric Green. The director of the NCGC at NHGRI, Christopher Austin adds that, "The Tox21 collaboration will transform our understanding of toxicology with the ability to test in a day what would take one year for a person to do by hand." As such, the remaining 7,500 compounds could be tested in a much shorter time period than the 2,500 or so tested since 2008. The development of a robotic system for screening will make the whole testing process much faster and smarter. "We will be able to more quickly provide information about potentially dangerous substances to health and regulatory decision makers, and others, so they can make informed decisions to protect public health," adds NIEHS and NTP director Linda Birnbaum. 1536-well microtiter plates are used, which means 1408 samples and controls can be tested on a single per plate. Each plate represents a different concentration. NCGC's quantitative high-throughput screening assays test chemicals at multiple concentrations, up to 15 different concentrations per chemical, which allows concentration-response curves to be obtained for critical toxicity profiling. The robot can process 100 such plates each day and so theoretically could test a million samples per week. Underpinning human health and environmentPaul Anastas, assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Research and Development adds that, "Understanding the molecular basis of hazard is fundamental to the protection of human health and the environment. Tox21 allows us to obtain deeper understanding and more powerful insights, faster than ever before."
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