Applications of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Predictive Toxicology and Risk Assessment

The new field of toxicogenomics presents a potentially powerful set of tools to better understand the health effects of exposures to toxicants in the environment. At the request of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Research Council assembled a committee to identify the benefits of toxicogenomics, the challenges to achieving them, and potential approaches to overcoming such challenges. The report concludes that realizing the potential of toxicogenomics to improve public health decisions will require a concerted effort to generate data, make use of existing data, and study data in new ways—an effort requiring funding, interagency coordination, and data management strategies.Table of ContentsFront MatterSummary1 Introduction2 Toxicogenomic Technologies3 Experimental Design and Data Analysis4 Application to Exposure Assessment5 Application to Hazard Screening6 Application to Analyzing Variation in Human Susceptibility7 Application to the Study of Mechanisms of Action8 Other Potential Applications of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Risk Assessment9 Validation10 Sample and Data Collection and Analysis11 Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues12 Conclusions and RecommendationsReferencesAppendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Applications of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Predictive ToxicologyAppendix B: Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment for ToxicogenomicsAppendix C: Overview of Risk Assessment