E. (Elton) Zvinavashe: "Predicting toxicity of chemicals using computer-based methods as alternatives to animal testing"


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16 Dec 2008 16:00

Unit: Wageningen University

Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen

Organisation: Wageningen University

Promotor: prof.dr. I.M.C.M Rietjens (Toxicology)

Promotor: Prof.dr. A.J. Murk

Co Promotor: Dr. A. Freidig (TNO Quality of Life, Zeist)

REACH, the new legislation for managing the risks of chemicals, requires that existing (eco)toxicological data gaps for the approximately 100 000 chemicals on the EU market be filled by 2018. Fast, cost effective methods that minimize or even avoid the use of experimental animals are urgently needed to fill in the data gaps. REACH recommends using in vitro (using e.g. isolated cells) and in silico (computer-based) methods to help identify priority chemicals for further risk evaluation. By computing the variation in chemical structure and relating it to toxicity, in silico models were developed to predict the toxicity of pesticides and industrial chemicals to five aquatic organisms. Based on toxicity data from either in vitro studies or experiments with Daphnia, toxicity to fish can be predicted. In silico methods can potentially predict toxicity of up to 57 % of the EU chemicals, thus potentially saving the lives of thousands of animals.

Title thesis: "The potential of computer based quantitative-structure activity relationship approaches for predicting acute toxicity of chemicals"

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