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NC3Rs: National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research
Online

Data-driven design of fish cell line-based reproductive toxicity assays

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Event date and time
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Organiser
NC3Rs

In this webinar a team from aQuaTox Solutions GmbH, Eawag and the National Institute of Biology (Slovenia) will present the outcomes from the SAFE CRACK IT Challenge including: 

  • A novel computational pipeline to identify novel biomarkers of reproductive toxicity.
  • Biomarker expression data in permanent rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) cells derived from liver and testis.
  • Machine learning algorithms built on historical in vivo and in vitro data and in vitro data generated during the Challenge, that can be used to predict chemical reproductive toxicity.
  • Data from the testing of nine chemicals to date and plans to test 30 additional chemicals to build further confidence in the suite of assays and advance them toward formal validation. 

The webinar will be of interest to ecotoxicologists from multiple sectors (industry, academia, regulatory agencies) who are interested in developing, using or supporting the further validation of NAMs. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session with the speakers. 

Speakers: 

  • Dr Roman Li
    R&D scientist, aQuaTox-Solutions and Eawag
  • Prof Dr Kristin Schirmer
    Principal investigator, Eawag
  • Dr Stephan Fischer
    Principal investigator, aQuaTox-Solutions
  • Dr Anze Zupanic
    Principal investigator, National Institute of Biology (Slovenia) 

The SAFE CRACK IT Challenge

In vivo fish tests are frequently required for Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) to evaluate the potential impact of exposure to chemical stressors. The development of NAMs-based testing strategies to assess the risk and impacts of chemicals on fish will work towards replacing their use in safety assessment. Industry partners* came together and collaborated with the NC3Rs on the SAFE CRACK IT Challenge that aimed to develop a suite of innovative, scalable bioassays for key adverse outcome pathways to replace fish studies in chemical safety screening and regulatory environmental risk assessment.

Read more about Challenge: SAFE.

*The SAFE Challenge is Sponsored by AstraZeneca, Bayer AG and Unilever, in partnership with DEFRA, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency. Co-funding has also been provided by DEFRA and the Environment Agency.