{"id":1187,"date":"2011-03-02T11:49:50","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T16:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=1187"},"modified":"2016-03-23T14:27:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:27:28","slug":"epa-is-doing-the-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-21st-century-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2011\/03\/02\/epa-is-doing-the-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-21st-century-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical safety evaluation: EPA is doing the \u201cRobot\u201d 21st century style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D.<\/em><\/a>, is a Health Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Parts in this series:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Part 1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Part 2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Part 3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Part 4<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Remember that then-new dance move<\/a> from the 20th<\/sup> century?\u00a0 Now don\u2019t get too excited, EPA is not adding a dance category to its new sustainability research program.<\/p>\n

No, the \u2018Robot\u2019<\/a> in my title refers to some of the impressive machines involved in EPA\u2019s efforts to develop and apply new automated approaches to chemical toxicity testing.\u00a0 These approaches integrate modern insights being gleaned from the biological sciences with advances in computation.\u00a0 A new term has even been coined for all this:\u00a0 Computational toxicology.<\/p>\n

Though perhaps less of a draw than a dance-off featuring EPA staff, EPA\u2019s exploration of new ways to better assess and address the safety of the tens of thousands of chemicals in use today is pretty exciting.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I participated in a Public Dialogue Conference<\/a> hosted by EPA on Advancing the Next Generation of Risk Assessment (NexGen). <\/a>\u00a0NexGen is an EPA initiative launched in 2010 that now falls under the recently-announced restructured research program at EPA, the Chemical Safety for Sustainability Research Program<\/a> (CSSRP).<\/p>\n

NexGen is a collaborative effort across multiple federal agencies and California\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>.\u00a0 They are sharing resources to explore how recent advances in molecular biology and computational sciences may improve, inform, and influence our understanding of chemical toxicity and risk.<\/p>\n

What are these recent advances in molecular biology?\u00a0 Recent research has begun to elucidate how chemicals act at the molecular and cellular levels to give rise to a particular effect or set of effects.\u00a0 In science speak, we refer to this activity as a chemical\u2019s mode of action (MOA).\u00a0 Of primary interest are those chemical activities that negatively affect \u2013 or perturb \u2013 the biological pathways<\/a> underlying \u201cnormal\u201d cellular processes and functions.<\/p>\n

Biological pathways and chemicals\u2019 MOAs are quite complex, potentially involving many biological components (e.g.,<\/em> DNA, RNA, proteins) and influenced by other factors such as diet and health status. \u00a0Scientists dedicate entire careers trying to put the many pieces of these intricate puzzles together.\u00a0 Here\u2019s just one measure of the complexity:\u00a0 In each one of our cells there are roughly 3 billion \u2013 that\u2019s billion with a \u2018b\u2019 \u2013 base pairs of DNA!\u00a0 Now consider trying to figure out what happens when a chemical enters a cell and comes face-to-face with that DNA.\u00a0 There are equally complex sets of potential interactions at the cell surface and within the cell.\u00a0 And with groups of cells that form our organs and other vital systems.\u00a0 Quite a daunting task, but scientists have been learning a lot about those interactions!<\/p>\n

Beyond identifying and characterizing the individual MOAs of chemicals at these levels, it is equally critical to overlay them on and place them in the context of the complex physiological interactions occurring in our bodies.\u00a0 And we\u2019re learning that these interactions vary significantly across the human population, depending on life stage, level and timing of exposures, genetic differences, and so on.\u00a0 Each of us represents a unique biology in some respects.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot for any human mind to grasp.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s impossible \u2013 and is the reason why EPA and its partners are investing equally in the development of the computational power necessary to handle and identify meaningful patterns within the massive amounts of biological data being generated.<\/p>\n

Enterprising industries have for some time been using these emerging understandings of biology and computational science for purposes ranging from drug discovery<\/a> to green chemical design<\/a> for some time.\u00a0 Now EPA is intensifying efforts to capitalize on new science to enhance its ability to more effectively and quickly assess chemical risk.<\/p>\n

So, great, while the science is really fascinating, and is spurring a flurry of business and government activity, at the end of the day what does all this have to do with keeping us safe from dangerous chemicals?\u00a0 Quite a bit, it turns out, which I\u2019ll turn to in future posts in this series.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist. Parts in this series:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Part 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Part 2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Part 3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Part 4 Remember that then-new dance move from the 20th century?\u00a0 Now don\u2019t get too excited, EPA is not adding a dance category to its new sustainability research program. No, the \u2018Robot\u2019 in my title refers to some …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56094,5009],"tags":[39167,5017,91637],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-testing-methods","category-health-science","tag-computational-toxicology","tag-risk-assessment","tag-toxcast"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}