May 8-9, 2008, Southampton, UK
Theme: In vitro methods to assess respiratory toxicity
Host: British American Tabacco
Seattle, Washington, is the host-city for the Society of Toxicology´s 47th Annual Meeting. Scientific Sessions will be held at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center during the week of March 16-20, 2008.
The Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting is the largest toxicology meeting and exhibition in the world, attracting approximately 6,200 scientists from industry, academia, and government. The program includes a plenary and other special lectures, symposia, workshops, roundtable discussions, and platform and poster presentations. The meeting also offers continuing education courses ranging from basic to advanced levels. In addition, the Society presents annual awards to recognize outstanding achievements in toxicology.
Why Attend the Annual Meeting?
The SOT Annual Meeting provides the most comprehensive coverage of toxicology. More than 2,300 abstracts, plus more than 70 scientific sessions present the latest "cutting-edge" research.
Four scientific themes will allow attendees to gain depth of analysis on: Developmental Basis of Disease; Oxidative Signaling and Redox Biology; Nanotechnology; and Stem Cell Biology and Toxicology.
The SOT Annual Meeting-toxicology´s largest meeting-allows you to network with colleagues and leading scientists from around the world.
The SOT Annual Meeting is cost-effective, with low registration fees, inexpensive high-quality continuing education courses, and exposure to the very latest advances in science.
The SOT Exhibition, ToxExpo™ is the profession´s largest show and offers one-stop shopping from suppliers. Gain first-hand knowledge about the products and services of participating exhibitors.
The SOT Exhibition, ToxExpo™, is the profession´s largest show and offers one-stop shopping from suppliers. Gain first-hand knowledge about the products and services of participating exhibitors.
More than 6,000 scientist, researchers, business people and educators from around the world attend the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo™. The majority of the attendees come from the United States and Canada, but ToxExpo™ attracts an International attendance that reflects SOT´s diverse membership. Based on historical data, we project that 55% of the professional toxicologists, pathologists and veterinarians at the Seattle Annual Meeting will not have attended last year´s 2007 Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is a great opportunity to generate new business. Visit www.toxexpo.com for more information on cutting-edge technology, the latest products and services available, and learn who will be exhibiting at ToxExpo™ 2008.
http://www.toxicology.org/AI/MEET/AM2008/am.asp
Toxicity testing is approaching the frontier of innovation while meeting the societal demand for reliable information on hazards of chemicals which are present in our environment and in consumer products. Important drivers are EC regulations such as the Directive for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals, which requests producers and importers of chemicals in volumes of 1 ton or more per year — around 30.000 substances — to test and evaluate them. One of the objectives of the new chemical policy is reduction of the use of animals by stimulating alternative test methods. The 7th amendment of the Council Directive relating to cosmetic products requests a ban on animal testing for finished cosmetic products and cosmetic ingredients from 2009 on for all human health effects except for repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics for which animal tests should be banned after 2013. Development of alternatives to animal testing, the validation and international adoption of harmonised methods is under high pressure. Besides attributing to the policy objectives, in vitro methods will also play a major role under the future chemicals policy by accelerating testing, rendering it more efficient but they may also offer better science.
Recent advances in toxicogenomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, epigenetics, and computational toxicology have the potential to transform toxicity testing from a system based on whole animal testing to one founded primarily on in vitro methods that evaluate changes in biologic processes using cells, cell lines, or cellular components, preferably of human origin.
Our workshop aims to be a forum where novel test methods, test strategies and further challenges will be presented and discussed in the presence of major stakeholders.
Daniel Krewski - Director Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Canada
Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-First Century: A Vision and a Strategy based on the report of NRC-US
Pauline Mcnamee - COLIPA (BE)
Recent Developments in the Colipa PT-SCAAT Eye Programme for the Development of In Vitro Alternatives
Hilda Witters – VITO (BE)
In vitro assays for endocrine disruptors: test performance and steps to validation
Philippe Vanparys - CARDAM (BE)
Alternatives for predictive toxicology in drug development: nice to have or added value?
Bas J. Blaauboer – IRAS , Utrecht University (NL)
Risk assessment: does it need redefinition?
Cyrille Krull - IVTIP (NL)
The applicability of in vitro projects for product safety assessment: experiences of the in vitro industrial platform IVTIP
Thomas Hartung, Head of ECVAM-JRC, ISPRA (I)
Testing strategies and their validation
Vera Rogiers: Head of Toxicology, Dermato-Cosmetology and Pharmacognosy, VUB (BE)
How good are actual validated methods to predict toxicity of different substances and products
Horst Spielman, BfR - Federal Institute for Risk Assessment- Berlin (D)
Title to be confirmed
Julia Scheel - Human Safety Assessment - HENKEL (D)
Regulatory acceptance and implementation of 3R approaches. Activities of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA)
Marc Willuhn LRI - CEFIC Brussels (BE)
Alternative Methods for Safety Testing of Chemicals – Activities of Industry
Klausrudolf Schroeder - Head Development Animal Alternatives & Tissue Models Phenion GmbH & Co (D)
Title to be confirmed
Rita Cortvrindt - Eggcentris (BE)
EggCentris, Centre of excellence for reproductive function testing, focuses on innovative in vitro bioassays
Rodger Curren - Institute for in Vitro Science, Gaithersburg (US)
How a Non-profit Institute successfully combines in vitro testing services with an education program
Bart De Wever, CARDAM (BE)
Centre for Advanced Research & Development on Alternative Methods
Robert Guest - Ali Poth Saphefarm (UK) - RCC-CCR
Health and Safety - Alternative Testing: the future for safety testing
For more information:
http://www.i-sup2008.org/program/theme_5.htm
THE trend for healthier eating has led to an increase of more than 300% in the number of laboratory experiments conducted on animals for food additives, sweeteners and health supplements over the past year.
Home Office figures showed an increase from 862 to 4,038 experiments from 2005 to 2006.
The disclosure will ignite an ethical debate about the way animals have become victims of the fad for health foods. Animal welfare groups said many of the tests are unnecessary or could be performed on humans.
The experiments often involve using painful procedures and artificially induced injuries to research the effects of food.
In a test at Glasgow University, rodents were fed raspberry juice and then killed to see where the juice had gone in their kidneys, liver and brains….
Read more at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3108147.ece
10/01/2008 - Thousands of rodents lives will be saved each year after a specific animal test is being scrapped following a review by 18 pharmaceutical companies. The firms, a list of which reads like a who´s who of pharma, got together with the UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (UK NC3Rs) to examine a particular toxicity test and found it was redundant. The process was supported by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
Already the companies involved have cut the number of animals used in acute toxicity tests by 70 per cent and the NC3R will be hoping more firms follow suit. However, toxicity tests utilise 500,000 rats and mice every year and cutting this test will only reduce that number by 15,000….
Read more at:
http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/news/ng.asp?n=82445-nc-r-efpia-animal-test ing-toxicity-astrazeneca
The presentations from EuroBioForum in Lisbon, Portugal on 5-7 December, 2007, where ASAT (Assuring Safety without Animal Testing) was presented are now available on the website at:
www.esf.org/eurobiofund/lisbon
The pages with information on each research consortia will be updated.
AltTox.org offers you three ways to help accelerate progress on in vitro and in silico approaches to toxicity testing:
Visit AltTox.org today!
A joint project of Procter & Gamble and The Humane Society of the United States, in collaboration with an international editorial board of distinguished scientists and policy experts.
By Mike Nagle
12/11/2007 -
The team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB), Germany, have stitched human liver cells to a piece of pig intestine to use as a 3D model in the early stages of drug development.
Despite the huge amounts of money the pharma industry ploughs in safety tests, the majority of drugs still fail clinical trials in humans and liver toxicity is one of the main reasons. Drugs are currently tested in animals and/or in human cell cultures, but this new system could reduce the number of animal experiments needed.
It also might predict drug problems both more accurately and earlier in the development process, which in turn could save the drug industry billions.
What sets this model apart from other 3D scaffolds is that the artificial tissue possesses a functional network of blood vessels - it is a vascularised liver model. However, some of the rival products are entirely animal free, such as ReInnervate´s, which uses a highly porous polystyrene scaffold to grow HepG2 liver cells or Invitrogen´s AlgiMatrix system that has a macroporous alginate sponge structure.
"The model enables us for the first time to bring drugs into physiological contact with cells just as in the human body, and to analyze the resultant breakdown products after they have been transformed by the cells," explained Professor Heike Mertsching of the IGB.
To create the testing system, the scientists first take a piece of a pig´s small intestine, including an artery to supply the blood and a vein to carry it away. Then they remove the animal cells until all that remains besides the proteins of the connective tissue layer are the tubes of the vascular system.
This is then lined from the inside with human endothelial cells, as in real-life. As soon as artificial blood begins to circulate in the vascular system, cells of all kinds of organs can grow on the matrix. In fact, IGB researchers are also generating 3D cell systems with skin and intestine cells for wound healing and infection tests as well as for skin cancer research.
Since the tissue has its own blood circulation system, it can be kept alive in a bioreactor for weeks at a time. A computer controls the arterial pressure, the temperature and the flow speed.
In the 3D model, nutrients, oxygen and the drug ingredient under test are transported through the artery into the artificial liver. The liver then breaks down the various compounds and the vein carries away the metabolic waste products. As well as initial safety indications, long-term drug effects can also be investigated including what happens with repeated administration of a biologically active agent.
With all these tests, the overriding benefit is that the results should better reflect what would happen in humans. With more and more drugs being shelved well after drug regulators approve them and thousands of patients have taken them, it´s not just money or animals that could be saved - human lives are at stake too and any step to improve safety testing is more than welcome.
In fact, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked computer model experts Entelos to develop a ´virtual liver´ that could help cut down on liver problems with new drugs. The tool will be used to develop biomarkers and preclinical assays in order to identify patients more at risk of liver injury and also more dangerous drug combinations.
Last Friday, Merck & Co. announced it had agreed to pay $4.85bn (€3.33bn) to resolve lawsuits filed against the pharma giant in the US related to heart attacks and strokes caused by its pain killer med Vioxx (rofecoxib).
The company will pay the money into a settlement fund for qualifying claims that enter into the resolution process, rather than to settle all the claims at once. The fund will cover more than 95 per cent of the current claims in the Vioxx litigation.
"This agreement...is consistent with our commitment to defend each claim individually through rigorous scientific scrutiny," said Bruce Kuhlik, general counsel of Merck.
"Under the agreement, there will be an orderly, documented and objective process to examine individual claims to determine if they qualify for payment."
This sentiment was echoed by the Chair of the Plaintiff´s Negotiating Committee. Russ Herman said: "Creating a process to look at individual claims is the fairest way to efficiently and quickly provide payment to qualified claimants."
The agreement almost brings to an end more than three years of legal wrangling as victims of Vioxx tried to hold Merck to account, although the pharma giant said it "does not admit causation or fault" with this latest move.
Current toxicological research concentrates on identifying hazards of chemical compounds and assessing risks of human exposure. These assessments are based on toxicological tests, most using animals as models for man. Despite decades of experience, this risk assessment is still hampered by uncertainties, such as extrapolation of data from animal to man and from short-term experiments in animals to long-term real-life exposure of man.
Toxicogenomics - the application of genomics-based technologies in toxicological research - may provide tools to tackle these uncertainties. It also offers the opportunity to develop tests that require fewer laboratory animals or cause them less inconvenience, and may eventually replace animal tests completely by in vitro assays using animal or human cells.
Consequently, the Netherlands Toxicogenomics Centre (NTC) aims to employ toxicogenomics to increase the basic understanding of toxicological mechanisms towards developing new and better test methods that also provide alternatives to animal testing, by developing highly predictive screens based on gene expression or protein/metabolite fingerprints, to be used for in depth evaluation of chemical safety for human health, thereby replacing/reducing/refining animal experiments, and thereby, for improving the scientific basis of chemical risk assessment.
NTC has been initiated by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative and kicked off in 2004. NTC represents a collaboration of the leading Netherlands institutions in the area of toxicogenomics: RIVM, RIKILT, TNO, Leiden University, LUMC, Wageningen University, Erasmus MC and Maastricht University (coordinator).
The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) is soliciting projects which focus on the implementation of the NAS Report: Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy in the following areas:
To apply for such a grant, complete the preproposal form here and return so that the submission reaches us no later than February 22, 2008. The form may be returned via mail, fax or e-mail.
On May 27-28, 2008, Phenion will organise its 2nd Technical Workshop titled "The Phenion® Skin Model Technologies and Their Applications". The Workshop will again take place in the Phenion facilities in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The first day of the Workshop will provide an update on the applications of the Phenion® Full Thickness Skin Model both in the field of alternatives to animal testing (including genotoxicity, xenobiotic metabolism, sensitization) and cosmetic research. In addition, and for the first time, Phenion will present the concept of the Open Source-Reconstructed Epidermis (OS-REp) model for topical toxicity testing. This OS-REp model, of which the intellectual property and the tissue production protocol are available to anyone, independent of use or party whatsoever (the true definition of ‘open source´), is based on the publications of Prof. Yves Poumay, Namur, Belgium, who will be attending as key-note speaker. Both the characteristics, tissue culture procedures, as well as experiences in toxicology testing will be extensively presented.
The second day, a technical training will be organised where the workshop participants will have the opportunity to perform some basic handling methods with the Phenion® Full Thickness Model and the OS-REp model in our laboratories under the guidance of the Phenion scientists.
More information is available at
http://www.phenion.com/gb/workshops.php