Representatives from the EU-ToxRisk project and the U.S. Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) initiative recently announced their intent to collaborate on efforts to reduce the use of animals in toxicological assessments and achieve more efficient chemical safety assessments. A joint issued by the two projects states that the collaboration stemmed from a workshop on risk assessment that was held in Germany in mid-September.

According to the press release, EU-ToxRisk and Tox21 researchers have agreed to work together to develop practices of cross-consortium data sharing; develop core methodology in read-across and the application of high-throughput transcriptomics for safety assessment; create synergies across overlapping chemical subsets; use ongoing developments of tissue models and computer-based predictions of drug concentrations for risk assessment; and develop joint case studies focused on innovations in the application of alternative approaches.

“This collaboration will help to strengthen communication between both sides with the objective to foster synergies to accelerate the shift in toxicology toward a new mechanism-based chemical safety testing strategy,” said Andy White of Unilever, who chaired the workshop. .

Tox21 is a federal research collaboration among EPA, NIH, and FDA. More information on Tox21 is available on EPA’s .

EU-ToxRisk’s website describes the project as “an integrated European ‘flagship’ program driving mechanism-based toxicity testing and risk assessment for the 21st century.” about the program.