Robot system to test chemicals for toxicity

High-speed robot system to screen 10,000 chemicals.
Courtesy of National Human Genome Research Institute

Four federal American agencies have joined forces to use a new robot system to improve the way chemicals are tested in the country.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National Toxicology Program, the National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have presented a new high-speed robot screening system that will test 10,000 chemicals for toxicity.

The collaboration, known under the name Tox21, merges the agencies’ resources, including research, funding and testing tools, to find better methods of testing the thousands of chemicals that people are exposed to every day.


System will help assess effects of chemicals on humans

“Understanding the molecular basis of hazard is fundamental to the protection of people’s health and the environment,” said Dr. Paul Anastas, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development, in the EPA press release. “Tox21 allows us to obtain deeper understanding and more powerful insights, faster than ever before.”

Too many chemicals have not yet been tested
for their effects on human health.

The robot system will test chemicals that are being used in industrial and consumer products, food additives and drugs. The results will help scientists in the evaluation of these chemicals to determine if they can lead to adverse health effects.


Proven screening system

According to the press release, Tox21 has already screened more than 2,500 chemicals for potential toxicity using robots and other innovative chemical screening technologies. The Tox21 chemical screening technologies were used to screen the different types of oil spill dispersants for potential endocrine activity during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

A video of the Tox21 robot is available.


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