Donate to Science & Enterprise

S&E on Mastodon

S&E on LinkedIn

S&E on Flipboard

Please share Science & Enterprise

Robotic System to Test 10,000 Compounds for Toxicity

Robotic arm testing chemicals (NHGRI)

(National Human Genome Research Institute)

Three U.S. agencies have begun a testing program of some 10,000 chemical compounds for potential toxicity. The Tox21 program is a collaboration of National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration.

The program aims to find out if these chemicals have the potential to disrupt human processes that can lead to adverse health effects. The 10,000 compounds cover a consumer products, food additives, chemicals found in industrial processes, and human and veterinary drugs.

The compounds will be tested in the Tox21 robotic screening system(pictured left)  at NIH’s Chemical Genomics Center in Rockville, Maryland. The Tox21 robot, unveiled earlier this year, was funded by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), part of NIH.

Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, where the Tox21 robot resides, says the system has undergone rigorous testing and is ready to start testing the large chemical library. “This is a milestone for Tox21,” says Green, “because it will allow us to test chemicals at a rate previously impossible for anyone to do by hand.”

The compounds in the library were selected after a thorough analysis of existing scientific studies, more than 200 public chemical databases, and nominations from internal and external partners. Each compound will undergo a thorough chemical analysis to verify its identity and determine its purity, concentration, and stability.

The testing will also cover combinations of compounds. Part of the NTP portion of the 10,000 compound library includes formulations or mixtures of compounds, which will be subject to pilot testing.

Read more: Agencies Use Robotics to Test Chemicals for Toxicity

*     *     *

1 comment to Robotic System to Test 10,000 Compounds for Toxicity