Chemical pollution is responsible for a large burden of human disease and economic impact. The classical methods regulators rely on to assess chemicals for potential human health impact involve animal testing that is prohibitively time-consuming, expensive, unethical, and not wholly reliable. However, regulatory risk assessment in Canada and worldwide is currently under transformation (i.e., laws are changing). In particular there is interest in harnessing emergent advances in genomics and computational biology to realize a new test method that is more efficient, cost-efficient and ethical. Here we propose to bring together high throughput in vitro methods and online bioinformatic tools developed in our academic research labs with a new cost-effective transcriptomic technology developed by the user (Qiagen). By closely reviewing emerging guidelines from the regulatory community and engaging them in discussion, we will iteratively test and establish a new and efficient transcriptomics-based, high-throughput toxicity test system. We will use this test system to assess the risks posed by chemicals of immediate regulatory concern (i.e., nanomaterials in food; pesticides). In doing so, the new toxicity testing system is estimated to cost ~$1,000 – $5,000 to evaluate a single chemical vs. the usual cost of ~$150,000 per single chemical, and also be realized in more ethical (i.e., in vitro methods that do not use animals) and rapid (i.e., a few days versus months) manner.
Genome Centre: Génome Québec
User:
| Samuel J. | Rulli | Qiagen |