Robot To Screen 10,000 Chemicals

The Tox21 collaboration, a multiagency effort to reduce animal testing and better predict the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment, has added a high-speed screening system to its toolbox. Over the next five years, the robotic system will test 10,000 chemicals for their toxicity. It will be located at the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), an arm of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Tox21 began in 2008 to develop high-throughput screening and computational models for assessing chemical toxicity. Agencies involved in the collaboration include EPA, FDA, the National Toxicology Program, and NCGC. “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,” Christopher Austin, director of NCGC, said in a statement.