The human toxome project

Mounir Bouhifd1, Melvin E Andersen2, Christina Baghdikian3

  • 1Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Baltimore, MD, USA.

ALTEX
|March 6, 2015
PubMed

Insights

The Human Toxome Project develops methods to identify molecular pathways of toxicity (PoT). This research aims to create a public knowledge base for toxicology and regulatory testing.

Area of Science:

  • Toxicology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Bioinformatics

Background:

  • The Human Toxome Project, funded by NIH, aims to establish methods for identifying, validating, and sharing molecular pathways of toxicity (PoT).
  • Existing toxicological research faces challenges in standardization and data sharing, hindering progress.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop concepts and tools for deducing, validating, and sharing molecular pathways of toxicity (PoT).
  • To create a comprehensive public database, the Human Toxome Knowledge-base, for toxicological research and regulatory strategies.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing estrogenic endocrine disruption as a test case.
  • Phenotyping MCF-7 human breast cancer cells using transcriptomics and mass-spectroscopy-based metabolomics.
  • Developing bioinformatics tools for PoT deduction and addressing challenges in data quality and standardization.

Main Results:

  • Progress in developing bioinformatics tools for PoT deduction.
  • Addressing challenges in cell system quality, omics technologies, and bioinformatics standardization.
  • Developing concepts for annotating, validating, and sharing PoT information and linking them to adverse outcomes.

Conclusions:

  • The Human Toxome Knowledge-base has the potential to become a central reference for toxicological research.
  • Standardization and data sharing are crucial for advancing toxicological understanding and regulatory science.

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