Paris, France
- NHEERL Scientists to Serve on OECD Expert Panels
- NHEERL Researcher Participates in OECD TiO2 Expert Meeting
- MED Researcher To Meet with OECD To Discuss Fish Testing Issues
- Two MED Scientists Invited To Speak at ILSI-HESI Workshop in Paris
- ISTD Researcher To Head Up OECD Subgroup in Paris
- NHEERL Scientists Participate in OECD Expert Group Meeting
- NHEERL Scientist Participates in Manufactured Nanomaterials Working Party, Then Named Its Co-Chair
- NHEERL Researcher Meets with OECD Counterparts To Discuss Expanding Screening Methods
NHEERL Scientists to Serve on OECD Expert Panels
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental organization in which representatives of 30 industrialized countries in North America, Europe, and the Asia and Pacific region, as well as the European Commission, meet to co-ordinate and harmonize policies, discuss issues of mutual concern, and work together to respond to international problems. Two scientists in NHEERL's Integrated Systems Toxicology Division (ISTD) recently have been selected to serve on OECD Expert Groups. Andrew Kligerman of the ISTD Genetic and Cellular Toxicology Branch has been named to the OECD Expert Group for the Development of Testing Guidelines for Genotoxicity Testing. And Jeffrey Ross, ISTD Carcinogenesis Branch Chief, will join the Expert Group on the Development of Test Guidelines for Rodent Transgenic Gene Mutation Assays. The goals of these efforts are to develop and refine internationally accepted, harmonized approaches for assessing the potential toxicities of chemicals. Dr. Kligerman and Dr. Ross were selected to serve on these workgroups because of their expertise in their respective fields. They will be attending meetings of the Expert Groups at the OECD headquarters in Paris, France, during the first week of March 2011 to work on finalizing the Test Guidelines.
NHEERL Researcher Participates in OECD TiO2 Expert Meeting
Steve Diamond, NHEERL Mid-Continent Ecology Division Ecotoxicology Analysis Research Branch, Duluth, MN, recently participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Expert Meeting of the TiO2 Sponsorship Group (OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials, a group with which Dr. Diamond has had prior experiences). At the meeting, which took place in Paris, France, on January 17 and 18, 2011, Dr. Diamond represented researchers with EPA/ORD working on the fate and effects of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanomaterial. As such, he described EPA’s research on environmental fate and effects of TiO2 to the sponsorship group and discussed with its members the testing methods used for TiO2 and the experiences gained in testing TiO2 within the scope of OECD’s Sponsorship Programme for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials.
EPA has been charged under the National Nanotechnology Initiative with researching the environmental effects of nanotechnology, and EPA also is mandated to regulate these materials. Interaction within OECD leverages EPA’s efforts to reduce the regulatory burden associated with nanomaterials.
MED Researcher To Meet with OECD To Discuss Fish Testing Issues
Gerald Ankley, a toxicologist at the NHEERL Mid-Continent Ecology Division Toxic Effects Characterization Branch in Duluth, MN, will meet with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) secretariat and other member country technical representatives in Paris, France, June 15-17, 2010. There he will participate as a technical expert and EPA representative in discussions of the Fish Drafting Group (FDG), a subgroup of the OECD Validation Management Group for Ecotoxicity Testing for Endocrine Disruptors Subcommittee, which Dr. Ankley chairs. In addition to this organizational role, Dr. Ankley represents the ORD research program on the topic of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and input of ORD research to the efforts of OSCP and OPPTS in the EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP).
EPA has a Congressionally mandated charge to develop a screening and testing program for endocrine-active chemicals. This activity directly supports EPA's EDSP and leverages international resources in the development and validation of harmonized screening and testing methods. Dr. Ankley will participate in discussions and reviews of the OECD process, and endocrine test methods developed by ORD/EPA are among those that will be discussed at the meeting.
Two MED Scientists Invited To Speak at ILSI-HESI Workshop in Paris
Two staffers at the NHEERL Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED) Toxic Effects Characterization Research Branch in Duluth, MN, will be participating in an early June 2010 workshop titled "Development of Alternatives to Chronic Ecotoxicity Tests: Predicting Early Life Stage and Endocrine-Mediated Toxicity in Aquatic Vertebrate Species." The International Life Sciences Institute's (ILSI's) Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) workshop will be held in Paris, France, and will bring together approximately 40 invited attendees who represent a cross-section of industry, academia, regulatory authorities, and nongovernmental organizations from North America, Europe, and Asia.
Teresa Norberg-King, an MED research aquatic biologist, has been active on the steering committee that is organizing the technical program for the workshop. She also has been invited to give a session talk on the use of early life stage tests at the workshop. Ms. Norberg-King, too, will serve as a facilitator for breakout sessions and summarize workshop highlights.
Daniel Villeneuve, a toxicologist at MED, has been invited to give an opening plenary lecture on adverse outcome pathways and perspectives on ecotoxicity testing in the 21st century, drawing from the products of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Pellston workshop that he co-chaired. Additionally, Dr. Villeneuve will represent EPA and ORD perspectives at the workshop, which is aimed at identifying critical science needs related to the development of potential alternative approaches for assessing chronic fish toxicity and endocrine disruption.
ISTD Researcher To Head Up OECD Subgroup in Paris
William Mundy, a neurotoxicologist with NHEERL's Integrated Systems Toxicology Division's (ISTD's) Systems Biology Branch, has been asked by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to participate in a meeting of its Advisory Group on Molecular Screening in Paris, France, October 26-28, 2009. There, he will be the head of the subgroup on Developmental Neurotoxicoloty Testing (DNT). Dr. Mundy will present a talk giving an overview of progress of the DNT subgroup in identifying appropriate chemicals for screening, identifying the appropriate end points and assays relevant to neurodevelopment, and developing a strategy to validate assays and interpret high-throughput data. Dr. Mundy will meet with scientists from the OECD subgroups to revise the Advisory Group plans to develop high-throughput screening assays and harmonize data evaluation procedures that will result in chemical prioritization for further testing. He then will meet with Dr. Barbara Demeniux at her laboratory to observe the use of in vitro techniques for the assay of chemical effects on thyroid-mediated developmental processes.
Dr. Mundy's participation in these activities will ensure that the Agency is current on new methods and approaches that are being used to build new toxicity testing paradigms in the international community. This exchange of information will be important in setting future research priorities as ORD and NHEERL begin implementing research programs on new methods for chemical screening and prioritization.
NHEERL Scientists Participate in OECD Expert Group Meeting
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published a draft Test Guideline entitled "Extended One-Generation Reproductive Toxicity Test." An Expert Group Meeting was organized in an attempt to reach consensus by the lead countries (the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands) on a number of scientific issues. The OECD steering committee requested nominations to seat an expert panel from different countries to discuss the methodology and added value of the developmental immunotoxicity and neurotoxicity cohorts. Interest in this new testing approach is high, and OECD wanted to make certain that previous consensus building evident in the early phase of guidance development was carried forth into the guideline process. In Paris, France, October 15-17, 2008, several NHEERL scientists participated in this effort (see below).
Robert W. Luebke, NHEERL Experimental Toxicology Division, participated in the meeting as an expert panel member to discuss the methodology and added value of the immunotoxicity cohort. Dr. Luebke is an internationally recognized expert on immunotoxicology and has been involved in the development of this guideline since its inception. His participation in this meeting was at the request of the OECD Steering Committee.
Ralph L. Cooper, NHEERL Reproductive Toxicology Division, participated in this meeting as the primary lead for the United States. Dr. Cooper is an internationally recognized expert on endocrine disruptors and was co-chair of the ILSI-HESI Task Force on Life Stage Testing and authored the ensuing document on the development of the life stages testing scheme (Cooper et al., Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2006). OECD requested Dr. Cooper's participation as a member of the steering group developing the new design on reproductive toxicity testing as part of the EDSP ongoing initiative.
Kevin M. Crofton, NHEERL Neurotoxicology Division, served as an expert panel member to discuss the methodology and added value of the neurotoxicity cohort. Dr. Crofton is an internationally recognized expert on developmental neurotoxicology. OECD requested Dr. Crofton to participate as an expert panel member to develop the new design on reproductive toxicity testing.
NHEERL Scientist Participates in Manufactured Nanomaterials Working Party, Then Named Its Co-Chair
In Paris, France, on September 22 and 23, 2008, Kevin Dreher participated in a workshop as a member-and later named its co-chair-of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) working party on engineered manufactured nanomaterials steering group to evaluate and provide guidance on the role of alternative test methods to assess and predict the toxicity of such nanomaterials. This OECD steering group's objectives are to provide (1) a detailed review of the available in vitro methods and to discuss how they might be used in an overall assessment plan for hazard testing of manufactured nanomaterials (the representative set); (2) a data set from testing a representative set of nanomaterials against an agreed suite of in vitro tests and comparisons made with in vivo studies; and (3) a guidance document for the longer term on integrated testing strategies and, for more general use, on the use of alternative methods not entailing animals, such as in vitro and in silico methods, for the hazard evaluation of manufactured nanomaterials.
NHEERL Researcher Meets with OECD Counterparts To Discuss Expanding Screening Methods
Philip Bushnell, an NHEERL Toxicity Assessment Division, Neurotoxicology Branch scientist who is an internationally recognized leader in the area of cognitive test methods in animal models, met with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) colleagues at their headquarters in Paris, France, on June 15, 2009. OECD is partnering with EPA to develop test guidelines and screening methods based on quantitative structure-activity relationships to identify the hazards of environmental chemicals. Neurotoxicity presently is not captured by existing procedures. The purposes of this meeting were to discuss new developments and potential approaches to screen for neurotoxicity and to discuss potential paths forward to integrating tests of neurotoxicity into the screening methods. This meeting will benefit EPA by coordinating efforts between the EPA and OECD on this important regulatory issue.