EPA New Robot System to Test 10,000 Chemicals for Toxicity

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March 10, 2011

New Robot System to Test 10,000 Chemicals for Toxicity

WASHINGTON – Several federal agencies have unveiled a new high-speed robot

screening system that will test 10,000 different chemicals for potential

toxicity. The system marks the beginning of a new phase of an ongoing

collaboration, referred to as Tox21, that is working to protect people’s

health

by improving how chemicals are tested in this country.

The robot system, which is located at the National Institutes of Health

Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), was purchased as part of the Tox21

collaboration established in 2008 between the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency

(EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National

Toxicology Program, and NCGC, with the addition of the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) in 2010. Tox21 merges existing resources – research,

funding and testing tools – to develop ways to more effectively predict how

chemicals will affect human health and the environment.

“Understanding the molecular basis of hazard is fundamental to the

protection of people’s health and the environment,†said Dr. Anastas,

assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development, “Tox21

allows us to obtain deeper understanding and more powerful insights, faster than

ever before.â€

The 10,000 chemicals the robot system will screen include chemicals found

in industrial and consumer products, food additives and drugs. Testing

results will provide information useful for evaluating if these chemicals have

the potential to disrupt human body processes enough to lead to adverse

health effects.

“Tox21 has used robots to screen chemicals since 2008, but this new robot

system is dedicated to screening a much larger compound library,†said

NHGRI Director Green, M.D., Ph.D. The director of the NCGC at NHGRI,

Austin, M.D., added “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.â€

“The addition of this new robot system will allow the National Toxicology

Program to advance its mission of testing chemicals smarter, better, and

faster,†said Birnbaum, Ph.D., NIEHS and NTP director. “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.â€

Tox21 has already screened more than 2,500 chemicals for potential

toxicity using robots and other innovative chemical screening technologies. The

Tox21 chemical screening technologies were used to screen the different types

of oil spill dispersants for potential endocrine activity during the BP oil

spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

“This partnership builds upon FDA’s commitment to developing new methods

to evaluate the toxicity of the substances we regulate,†said Dr. Janet

Woodcock, director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

EPA contributes to Tox21 through the ToxCast program and by providing

chemicals and additional fast, automated tests. ToxCast currently includes 500

chemical screening tests that are assessing more than 1,000 chemicals.

Video of the Tox21 robot is available at _http://www.genome.gov/27543670_

(http://www.genome.gov/27543670) .

More information on the Tox21 collaboration: _http://epa.gov/ncct/Tox21/_

(http://epa.gov/ncct/Tox21/)

More information on ToxCast: _http://epa.gov/ncct/toxcast/_

(http://epa.gov/ncct/toxcast/)

More information on NTP: _http://www.ntp.niehs.nih.gov_

(http://www.ntp.niehs.nih.gov/)

More information on NCGC: _http://www.ncgc.nih.gov_

(http://www.ncgc.nih.gov/)

More information on FDA: _http://www.fda.gov_ (http://www.fda.gov/)