Environmental Factor, November 2007, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Toxicogenomics Report: New Tools to Assess Risks from Chemicals

By Robin Mackar
November 2007

Determining how thousands of chemicals found in the environment may be interacting with the genes in the body to cause disease may become easier and more cost-effective, thanks to advances in the field of science known as toxicogenomics. A new report issued October 9 by the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) recognizes the importance of alternative high-throughput methodologies in predicting effects on human health and recommends the integration of toxicogenomics into regulatory decision making.

The NAS report, Applications of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Predictive Toxicology and Risk Assessment , was commissioned by NIEHS, a leader in the development of toxicogenomic technologies. Over the past decade, NIEHS has promoted the development of advanced technologies for identifying the biochemical pathways of toxicity as a viable alternative to animal studies, which are several times more expensive and time consuming.

Because of their speed, cost and capacity for processing large volumes of data, toxicogenomic technologies offer researchers a way to address the growing backlog of chemicals whose potential toxicity has yet to be assessed. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) has also endorsed development of alternative methodologies as one answer to concerns by the animal rights community over the use of animals in research.

Toxicogenomic technologies provide tools to understand more completely the mechanisms through which environmental agents initiate and advance disease processes. They can also provide important information to help identify individuals who are more susceptible than the general population to disease risks posed by certain environmental agents.

“Using toxicogenomic technologies will open the door for public health decision makers who need to decide in a timely and accurate manner what chemicals are safe and which ones are not,” said Christopher Portier, Ph.D., associate director, NIEHS and director, Office of Risk Assessment Research.

The report from the NAS National Research Council (NRC) states that the technological hurdles that could have limited the reproducibility of data from toxicogenomic technologies have been resolved and recommends ways for the field to move forward.

“NIH and others have invested in the development of these tools and have already tackled many of the tough technical questions. We are now ready to move to the next phase of technology development, refined standardization and validation, so these tools can be even more useful to regulatory agencies,” said Portier.

“The NIEHS and NTP have been steadily increasing the use of toxicogenomic and other technologies derived from the molecular biology revolution,” said Samuel H. Wilson, M.D., NIEHS acting director. The research and initiatives supported through the National Center for Toxicogenomics and the Toxicogenomics Research Consortium, for example, were at the forefront of these technologies and were instrumental in the development of many of the standards for quality and reproducibility that are used today.

The report, which was prepared by a panel of 16 scientists assembled by the NRC and chaired by Harvard University’s David Christiani, Ph.D., provides a broad overview of the potential benefits arising from toxicogenomic technologies, describes challenges regarding use of new technologies and provides 14 recommendations to achieve the potential benefits of these technologies.

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