Advancing the Next Scientific Revolution in Toxicology
The 2007 NAS report on Toxicity Testing for the 21st Century was a watershed moment for toxicology. Since then, the discussion is no longer whether to change but how and how fast? With knowledge in the life sciences doubling every seven years, we now have four times more understanding and actually a number of disruptive technologies have evolved, which were not anticipated in the report, such as Microphysiological Systems (MPS) and Machine Learning, aka Artificial Intelligence (AI). In order to embrace these developments and move toxicology to a more wholistic and integrated paradigm, the Basic Research Office of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, OUSD(R&E), hosted a Future Directions workshop Advancing the Next Scientific Revolution in Toxicology on April 28-29, 2022, at the Basic Research Innovation Collaboration Center (BRICC), in Arlington, VA. A vanguard of scientific and technical experts and agency observers developed a report, laying out how recent developments can be embraced and set the direction of “Toxicology for the 21st Century 2.0” in the next decades. The workshop discusses three advances, i.e. Exposure-driven Toxicology, Technology-enabled Toxicology and Evidence-integrated Toxicology. Ultimately, the workshop participants envision a future for toxicology as a Human Exposome Project in which collaborative, technology-enabled open platforms transparently generate, collect, process, share, and interpret data, information, and knowledge of real-world chemical and non-chemical stressors to enable real-time and rapid evidence integration, empowering all steps of protection of human health and the environment.