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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
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A High-throughput Assay for the Prediction of Chemical Toxicity by Automated Phenotypic Profiling of Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: March 14, 2019
The future of toxicity testing: a focus on in vitro methods using a quantitative high-throughput screening platform.
Sunita J Shukla1, Ruili Huang, Christopher P Austin
1NIH Chemical Genomics Center, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-3370, USA.
Drug Discovery Today
|August 17, 2010
Summary
The Tox21 program shifts chemical toxicity testing from animal studies to in vitro methods using quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) for faster, cost-effective compound prioritization and human health risk prediction.
Area of Science:
- Toxicology
- Chemical Biology
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- Traditional toxicity testing relies on in vivo methods, which are expensive and low-throughput.
- The Tox21 collaboration aims to revolutionize chemical safety assessment.
- Adverse health effects in humans necessitate predictive toxicity models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the Tox21 collaboration's goals and structure.
- To detail the quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) approach used.
- To present validated screening assays at the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC).
Main Methods:
- Utilizing a quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) paradigm.
- Implementing titration-based screening for compound profiling.
- Validating and testing various screening assays at NCGC.
Main Results:
- The Tox21 program enables rapid profiling of hundreds of thousands of compounds weekly.
- qHTS facilitates cost-effective and high-throughput in vitro toxicity testing.
- Validated assays support compound prioritization and mechanism of action studies.
Conclusions:
- The Tox21 collaboration and NCGC's qHTS are advancing predictive toxicology.
- In vitro methods offer a paradigm shift for efficient chemical safety assessment.
- This approach aids in developing models for human adverse health effects.
