There are various roles available within the world of toxicology. However, the primary responsibility, whichever specialism you choose, is to investigate the adverse effects of chemicals on human, animal or environmental health. They do this by examining the potential negative effects of chemicals within new medicines, drugs, materials and natural substances to identify the harm they can or do cause to living bodies.
Contract research organisations, such as Gentronix, are experts in predictive toxicology. This specialist toxicology area is moving beyond drug testing development to offer solutions for next-generation risk assessment. Toxicologists combine scientific knowledge of medicine, chemistry, and biology alongside environmental science to assess the potential of a chemical to affect living bodies. As a predictive toxicologist, your role is to assess and understand the mechanism of chemicals and products used by humans and animals to determine safe levels of use or exposure, whether by application, ingestion, skin contact or vaccination under test conditions. Understanding the mechanism of the chemicals and substances in given test conditions to evaluate the carcinogenic or mutagenic risk will enable the safety of the test substance to be determined. Toxicologists, l work within the industry to create viable pharmaceutical, medical, agrochemical, cosmetics, and environmental and building products that are safe for use.
Toxicology screening
Optimised global chemical development uses predictive toxicology to identify genotoxic hazards and chemical safety through early identification of risks within a wide range of screening products and services. Genetic, regulatory and skin toxicology screening through various in vivo and in vitro assay testsidentifies modes of action that will assist the production lifecycle. From early-stage testing to key endpoint and regulatory testing that gives a greater understanding of how the substance behaves, results can then be interpreted and any adverse toxicology findings managed. Toxicologists, carry out controlled experiments and create handling advice for substances backed by scientific data and identifying information to enable decisions on a risk/reward basis better to inform a project’s future viability and development.
Understanding how a chemical behaves through absorption, mutation, biotransformation, DNA or protein reactivity, distribution and excretion on humans, animals, and drinking water aids understanding from an antigenic and mutagenic perspective. The critical cell activation, haptentation and keratinocyte events must be identified through a range of OECD and screening sensitisation tests, which toxicologists perform. A predictive toxicologist will use small amounts of test items to carry out a range of tests (such as the Ames test), which support the pre-clinical and clinical delivery screening of substances intended to be used in or around humans.
Ethical Questions
There has been, for some time, a requirement for reducing and justifying the number of animals used in testing, which is where a predictive toxicologist within a research organisation can have a significant impact. In vitro micronucleus and Ames testing, has advanced to using low-test volumes to offer fast, low-cost and reproducible test results without requiring large numbers of test animals to achieve reliable and valuable test data.
As a toxicologist in the field of predictive toxicology solutions, you will have the opportunity to work with and assist pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical companies developing products and programmes, ensuring that they are thoroughly informed on the behaviour and likely outcomes of a substance from its early development through to regulatory evaluation.
In short, the role of a toxicologist is essential. Whether you choose the path of forensic, medical or predictive toxicology, you will play a vital role in understanding chemicals’ potential to cause harm. As a predictive toxicologist, you can influence which chemicals are developed, thereby reducing potential to cause harm to humans or the environment.
