A Look Back at 2021

PETA Science Consortium International e.V. had an active year advancing animal-free approaches to toxicity testing. Here are some of the highlights from our work:

PUBLICATIONS

We published twelve papers:

• Felter SP, Bhat VS, Botham P, Bussard D, Casey W, Hayes AW, Hilton GM, Magurany KA, Sauer UG, Ohanian EV. 2021. Assessing chemical carcinogenicity: hazard identification, classification, and risk assessment. Insight from a toxicology forum state-of-the-science workshop. Crit Rev Toxicol. 2021, In press.
• Luettich K, Sharma M, Yepiskoposyan H, Breheny D, Lowe FJ. An adverse outcome pathway for decreased lung function focusing on mechanisms of impaired mucociliary clearance following inhalation exposure. Front Toxicol. 2021. doi: 10.3389/ftox.2021.750254.
• Marty S, Andrus A, Groff K. Animal metrics: tracking contributions of new approach methods to reduced animal use. ALTEX. 2021. doi: 10.14573/altex.2107211.
• Groff K, Evans SJ, Doak SH, Pfuhler S, Corvi R, Saunders S, Stoddart G. In vitro and integrated in vivo strategies to reduce animal use in genotoxicity testing. Mutagenesis. 2021. org/10.1093/mutage/geab035.
• Harrill J, Viant M, Yauk CL, Sachana M, Gant TW, Auerbach SS, Beger RD, Bouhifd M, O’Brien J, Burgoon L, Caiment F, Carpi D, Chen T, Chorley BN, Colbourne J, Corvi R, Debrauwer L, O’Donovan C, Ebbels TMD, Ekman DR, Faulhammer F, Gribaldo L, Hilton GM, Jones SP, Kende A, Lawson TN, Leite SB, Leonards PEG, Luijten M, Martin A, Moussa L, Rudaz S, Schmitz O, Sobanski T, Strausss V, Vaccari M, Vijay V, Weber RJM, Williams AJ, Williams A, Thomas RD, Whelan. Progress towards an OECD reporting framework for transcriptomics and metabolomics in regulatory toxicology. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2021;125:105020. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2021.105020.
• Clippinger AJ, Raabe HA, Allen DG, Choksi N, van der Zalm A, Kleinstreuer N, Barroso J, Lowit AB. Human-relevant approaches to assess eye corrosion/irritation potential of agrochemical formulations. Cutan Ocul Toxicol. 2021;40(2):145-167. doi: 1080/15569527.2021.1910291.
• Petersen EJ, Sharma M, Clippinger AJ, Gordon J, Katz A, Laux P, Leibrock LB, Luch A, Matheson J, Stucki AO, Tentschert J, Bierkandt FS. Use of cause-and-effect analysis to optimize the reliability of in vitro inhalation toxicity measurements using an air-liquid interface. Chem Res Toxicol. 2021;34(6):1370-1385. doi: 1021/acs.chemrestox.1c00080.
• Petersen EJ, Reipa V, Xia M, Sharma M. Resources for developing reliable and reproducible in vitrotoxicological test methods. Chem Res Toxicol. 2021;34(6):1367-1369. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.1c00093.
• Petersen EJ, Nguyen A, Brown J, Elliott JT, Clippinger AJ, Gordon J, Kleinstreuer N, Roesslein M. Characteristics to consider when selecting a positive control material for an in vitro assay. 2021;38(2):365-376. doi: 10.14573/altex.2102111.
• Sullivan K, Allen DG, Clippinger AJ, Wilson DM, Edwards SW, Glover K, Mansouri K, Settivari R, Wijeyesakere S, Casey W. Mind the gaps: prioritizing activities to meet regulatory needs for acute systemic lethality. ALTEX. 2021;38(2):327-335. doi:14573/altex.2012121.
• Paparella M, Scholz S, Belanger S, Braunbeck T, Bicherel P, Connors K, Faßbender C, Halder M, Lillicrap A, Liska R, Schirmer K, Stoddart G, Thomas P, Walter-Rohde S. Limitations and uncertainties of acute fish toxicity assessments can be reduced using alternative methods. ALTEX. 2021;38(1):20-32. doi: 10.14573/altex.2006051
• Brown J, Clippinger AJ, Briglia CF, Casey W, Coleman K, Fritsch A, Hartung T, Maouyo D, Muller T, Reich J, Robert L, Roeder R, Sanchez G, Sawyer AY, Solati S, Tirumalai R, Zwisler W, Allen D. Using the monocyte activation test as a stand-alone release test for medical devices. 2021;38(1):151-156. doi: 10.14573/altex.2012021.

In addition, we submitted five other papers on antibodies, foetal bovine serum, inhalation toxicity testing, and carcinogenicity testing that are undergoing peer review, and we are working on several others.

We are also guest editing a special issue of Frontiers in In Vitro Toxicology with experts from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Corteva Agriscience, Japan Tobacco International, and Bergeson & Campbell, PC. The special issue focuses on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for chemical testing, with several publications already online.

WEBINARS

We co-organised seven webinars:

• Webinar series on the use of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) in risk assessment, co-hosted with the EPA and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
  • NAM Webinar 8: Use of computational and AOP-based approaches to inform carcinogenicity assessments. Susanne Stalford, PhD, Lhasa Limited, and Martin Phillips, PhD, EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.
  • NAM Webinar 9: Acceptance and use of in vitro and ex vivo eye irritation test methods. Hans Raabe, MS, Institute for In Vitro Sciences and João Barroso, PhD, European Commission, Joint Research Centre.
• Webinar series on inhalation toxicity testing, co-hosted with the EPA, Unilever, and Syngenta.
  • Webinar 1: Exposure and dosimetry
    • Accurate aerosol dosimetry predictions using in silico and in vitro approaches for risk assessment methods. Arkadiusz Kuczaj, University of Twente and Philip Morris International.
    • Advancing application of NAMs and evidence integration in risk assessment: dosimetry is critical to exposure alignment. Annie Jarabek, EPA Office of Research and Development.
    • Advanced lung-on-chip platforms for preclinical inhalation assays: bridging in vitro and in silico approaches. Josué Sznitman, Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
  • Webinar 2: Case studies
    • Recalibrating the existing inhalation TTC datasets to develop refined strategies for inhalation safety evaluation. Nikaeta Sadekar, RIFM; Grace Patlewicz, US EPA Office of Research and Development; Jane Rose, Procter & Gamble.
    • Poorly soluble, low toxicity (PSLT) polymer category: a case study for an integrated approach to testing and assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Louis “Gino” Scarano, US EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics and Shawn Anderson, IFF.
    • Three-dimensional in vitro models to predict relevant toxicity or pharmacological effects in human lung. Vivek Patel and Holger Behrsing, Institute for In Vitro Sciences.
  • Webinar 3: Case studies
    • Refining inhalation risk assessment of a contact irritant using computational fluid dynamics and the MucilAir™ airway assay. Marie Hargrove, Syngenta.
    • Development of a next generation risk assessment framework for inhalation safety of consumer products. Maria Baltazar and Iris Muller, Unilever.
    • INSPiRE project: in vitro inhalation testing of silane & surfactant compounds. Sandra Verstraelen and Evelien Frijns, VITO.
• Flea and tick product testing (invitation only)
  • Webinar 1: Current testing requirements to demonstrate the efficacy of ectoparasiticides
  • Webinar 2: Integrating in vitro/ex vivo testing strategies to predict the efficacy of ectoparasiticides – artificial membranes

We also organised five webinars through our role in the Society of Toxicology’s Carcinogenicity Specialty Section.

• Fundamentals and frontiers in carcinogenesis
  • Webinar 1: Molecular mechanism of chemical carcinogenesis
  • Webinar 2: Cancer risk assessment
  • Webinar 3: New tools for carcinogenicity assessment
  • Webinar 4: Cancer biomarkers
• Integrating computational tools into carcinogenicity assessments

CHAIRED SESSIONS

We co-chaired six sessions on animal-free testing approaches at the following conferences:

• 60^th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology
  • New approach methods for cancer risk assessment
• 11^th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences
  • Replacing fetal bovine serum (FBS) – innovative alternatives and transition strategies
  • Modern, mechanistic approaches to cancer risk assessment
  • A global movement to improve science using animal-free antibodies
  • Lessons learned and practical considerations for the use of in vitro exposure systems to assess respiratory toxicity
• 56^th Congress of the European Societies of Toxicology (EUROTOX)
  • Modernizing cancer risk assessment: beyond the bioassay

PRESENTATIONS

We gave more than two dozen poster and oral presentations on topics including chemically defined media for cell culture, in vitro inhalation toxicity testing, and alternative approaches for assessing carcinogenicity.

LEADERSHIP ROLES

We hold several leadership positions, including secretary/treasurer of the Society of Toxicology’s Carcinogenesis Specialty Section, the leadership team of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute’s (HESI) Transforming the Evaluation of Agrochemicals (TEA) committee, and a member of the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee.

We continue to serve as a member of the US Scientific Advisory Committee on Alternative Toxicological Methods (SACATM), a federally chartered committee that advises the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) and the National Toxicology Program’s Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM).

We also serve on a high-level roundtable for the implementation of the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

This year, we also served on several scientific committees, including for the 10^th International Conference on Nanotoxicology (NanoTox 2021) and the 19^th International Workshop on Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships in Environmental and Health Sciences (QSAR 2021).

We continue to participate in standards-making organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (through the International Council on Animal Protection in OECD Programmes) and the International Organization for Standardization. The Science Consortium is a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) accredited stakeholder and an observer of the Competent Authorities for REACH and CLP (CARACAL). It is a member of the EURL ECVAM stakeholder forum and an observer of the Competent Authorities expert group on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

AWARDS

We partnered with MatTek Life Sciences and MedTec Biolab to award three researchers tools that can assess the respiratory effects of inhaled substances. We also honoured one early-career researcher for a poster he presented on a three-dimensional model of the human cornea that can assess the photo irritancy and eye irritancy of medical devices and drugs without using animal components.

Two new travel awards were launched late this year. One will send a student from a historically Black college or university to the 61^st Annual Society of Toxicology Conference, and the other will send an early-career researcher in India to a scientific conference of their choice. The winners will be announced in early 2022.

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Our team is growing! Interested in joining the team? Click here to view career opportunities with Science Consortium members.

See our highlights from past years:

2020
2019
2018