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Food

Our services for the food Industry

  • QSAR and read-across supporting the safety assessment of substances (e.g. food contaminants, food contact materials).

  • Computational toxicology assessment of potential genotoxicity.

Tools that we employ are:

  • Leadscope Model Applier

  • Lhasa (Derek and Sarah)

  • Other (VEGA/OECD QSAR Toolbox/T.E.S.T./Toxtree)

Endpoints that we predict include:

  • Carcinogenicity

  • Mutagenicity

  • Genotoxicity

  • Skin Sensitization

  • Acute Toxicity

  • Reproductive toxicity

  • Developmental toxicity

  • Neurotoxicity

  • Target organ toxicity (e.g., liver, urinary tract, lung, cardiac)

  • Other (e.g., environmental toxicity)

Training on in silico toxicology methods and their integration in a safety assessment process is provided.

In Silico Toxicology

  • In silico toxicology (also referred to as computational toxicology) aims at predicting toxicity generally from chemical structure.

  • In silico toxicology includes category formation (grouping) and read-across, Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR), Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR), and Expert Systems.

  • In silico toxicology methods play a crucial role to generating additional information for complementing and ultimately enhancing or supporting a risk assessment, including an understanding of the structural and/or mechanistic basis that may contribute ideas for the rational design of new chemicals, development of a testing strategy or an overall weight-of-evidence evaluation.

References:

Myatt, G. et al. (2018). In silico toxicology protocols. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol, 96, 1-17.

Bassan A. et al. (2018). Final report on the update and maintenance of OpenFoodTox: EFSA's Chemical Hazards Database EN-1438.

Bassan A. et al. (2014). Further development and update of EFSA’s Chemical Hazards Database, EFSA supporting publication EN-654.

Bassan, A. et al. (2012). Reports on toxicokinetics, toxicity and allergenicity data on substances to be evaluated as acceptable previous cargoes for edible fats and oils. EFSA Supporting Publications EN-274.

Bassan A., Worth A. P. (2007). Computational Tools for Regulatory Needs. In: Ekins S. (eds) Risk Assessment For Pharmaceutical And Environmental Chemicals, , Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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