Chemical Toxicity Mechanisms: Revisiting ToxCast Data
The ToxCast program of the US EPA was initiated over a decade ago. Its goal was to find rapid and efficient methods to prioritize thousands of chemicals for potential human health effects. The BioMAP® platform was one of the methods first selected for evaluation in 2007. The BioMAP platform consists human primary-cell based systems designed to model specific tissue settings. These assays were developed by BioSeek, Inc. (explaining why they are sometimes called the BioSeek assays) and are now available as assay panels (through Eurofins Discovery (e.g. BioMAP Diversity PLUS Panel).
Over 1000 reference chemicals have been tested in BioMAP assays for the ToxCast program (Houck, 2009; Kleinstreuer, 2014). Results are reported as changes in the relative levels of selected clinical protein biomarkers. Together these comprise multi-parameter bioactivity signatures.
Data on the ToxCast chemicals have been available in supplementary tables of publications and also on the EPA’s CompTox Dashboard. However, neither of these formats make it easy to compare chemicals and assays. To facilitate accessibility of these data and connect to metadata, we are developing interactive data visualizations and data stories. See here for an interactive visualization of data from the Kleinstreuer paper, analyzed for toxicity-associated signatures. These data were first presented at the SOT conference in 2019 (see poster pdf here). Read more about the BioMAP Toxicity Signatures here.
