Basic Information
EPA's Computational Toxicology Research Program (CompTox) is housed within the Office of Research and Development (ORD) and it provides innovative solutions to a number of persistent and pervasive issues facing EPA's regulatory programs.
- Applies mathematical and computer models to help assess chemical hazards and risks to human health and the environment.
- Uses advances in informatics, high-throughput screening technologies, and systems biology to develop robust and flexible computational tools that can be applied to the thousands of chemicals in commerce and the contaminant mixtures found in America's air, water, and hazardous-waste sites.
Guiding Documents
- US EPA's Computational Toxicology Research Program Implementation Plan (FY2009-2012) (PDF, 89pp, 0.86mb, About PDF)
- US EPA's Strategic Plan for Evaluating the Toxicity of Chemicals (March 2009) (PDF, 46pp, 4.21mb, About PDF)
- US EPA's Computational Toxicology Research Program Implementation Plan (FY2006-2008) (PDF, 100pp, 0.93mb, About PDF)
- Strategic Guidance: A Framework for a Computational Toxicology Research Program (November 2003) (PDF, 56pp, 2.46mb, About PDF)
- Board of Scientific Counselor Computational Toxicology Annual Review
Vision
An EPA that efficiently characterizes exposure, hazard and risk through the broad use of modern biological tools, information technologies, and computational models.
CompTox Three Main Elements
- National Center for Computational Toxicology - largest component established in 2005 to coordinate research on chemical screening and prioritization, informatics, and systems modeling.
- National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory & National Exposure Research Laboratory - Related computational toxicology activities in these two labs.
- Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program - academic centers funded by the STAR program to work on various aspects of computational toxicology.
Mission
To integrate modern computing and information technologies with molecular biology to provide the Agency with decision support tools for high-throughput risk assessment.
Goal
Provide high-throughput decision support tools for assessing chemical exposure, hazard, and risk.
CompTox Three Main Elements
- National Center for Computational Toxicology - largest component established in 2005 to coordinate research on chemical screening and prioritization, informatics, and systems modeling.
- National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory & National Exposure Research Laboratory - Related computational toxicology activities in these two labs.
- Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program - academic centers funded by the STAR program to work on various aspects of computational toxicology.
Collaborations & Partnerships
CompTox seeks opportunities to partner and collaborate on environmental research and development projects with outside entities, industry, consortia, academia, trade associations, and state and local agencies to facilitate the development of a national approach to the use of computational procedures in toxicology.