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PPDC Work Group on 21st Century Toxicology/New Integrated Testing Strategies December 2, 2008 Teleconference/Meeting Minutes
List of attendees: Vicki Dellarco; Steven Bradbury; Jennifer McLain; Elizabeth Brown; Erica Dahl; Davis Daiker; Michael Fry; Erik Janus; Edwin Matthews; Joel Paterson; Troy Seidle; Kristie Sullivan.
The first item on the agenda was the Work Group objective. The members did not have any suggestions for changes to the latest draft so it will be posted as the final version on the PPDC Work Group Web site.
The next item on the agenda was a discussion of Work Group activities over the next few months. First, V. Dellarco discussed EPA activities of interest to the workgroup. One activity concerns the NAS report on Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century and the Agency’s strategic plan for the future of toxicity testing and risk assessment at EPA; the strategic plan has been submitted for journal publication. OPPTS is in the process of updating its strategic plan for integrated testing and OPP would like this work group to be a part of the process. Another potential activity is an OPP webpage on integrated testing strategies and computational toxicology to explain the joint vision of OPP and ORD.
Some workgroup members submitted ideas for activities prior to the meeting:
- Provide EPA with feedback on strategy to apply tools such as SAR
- Recommendations on how to expand use of (Q)SARs in risk assessment
- Survey tools and framework for a communication strategy
- Advise EPA on how to communicate what it is doing, why, how it affects the regulatory decisionmaking process, and what communication documents might be helpful
- Examine some of the older animal tests for reproducibility and predictive capacity for work group publication
The work group discussed these and additional suggestions from members. One suggestion concerned development of a framework for communicating the computational toxicity testing tools such as the intended application, objectives or goals, and the science issues. There was also a suggestion to create a matrix table listing information needs, the tools that are currently available, and the status of each tool. There could be some indication which tools have been integrated into a regulatory framework. The scientific merit, pitfalls, and applicability should be included.
The work group agreed to: (1) help OPP develop the webpage on integrated testing; and (2) develop matrix of integrated testing tools. The workgroup believed that it could provide feedback on OPP’s webpage and the matrix table of tools in time for the April 2009 PPDC.
Summary of action items:
- V. Dellarco will prepare a draft concept of the OPP “Integrated Testing Strategies” webpage for the January meeting. To assist V. Dellarco, K. Sullivan and E. Brown volunteered to provide early input on this draft webpage.
- V. Dellarco will prepare a partially filled out shell of the matrix of computational toxicology tools (both existing and those under development) and E. Janus, E. Dahl, K. Sullivan and E. Brown volunteered to provide feedback on the construct of the matrix and tools that should be included.
- All members were asked to brainstorm about ideas for a Questions and Answers page. V. Au will send an email to work group members clearly identifying what OPP is interested in receiving. Specifically, which issues related to an integrated testing strategy are important to stakeholders to have OPP address prior to implementation? And what implementation issues will arise for which OPP needs to develop a plan?
January 6, 2009, meeting: Ed Matthews will present the FDA QSAR systems the first hour. The second hour of the meeting will be a discussion of the draft matrix and webpage.