TT21C Introduced to Chinese Scientists at Unilever Symposium

A recent Unilever-organised symposium in Shanghai introduced leading Chinese scientists and government officials to the Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century (TT21C) concept (Krewski et al., 2010). The aim of the symposium was to achieve the earliest possible introduction of this new science to leading toxicologists and regulators in China. Toxicologists from Unilever’s Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC) worked in collaboration with Mel Andersen at the Hamner Institutes and Dan Krewski at the University of Ottawa, to make this event a success.

Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century Symposium Participants Shanghai, China

The TT21C concept is underpinned by the aim to conduct safety assessments on chemicals through the use of information obtained from human in vitro cell systems, on perturbations of key toxicity pathways, and risk assessment based on computational models of the biology. The TT21C concept has the potential to have considerable impact on the use of non-animal approaches for assuring consumer safety.

The symposium resulted in a high level of engagement from the thought leaders in China, and significant commitment to move this forward within relevant organisations and fora in China. A number of firm follow-up actions came out of the meeting, including recommendations for initiation of new Chinese-based research, a Chinese Toxicology Society follow-up symposium on TT21C (to their 3000 members), and other training/education activities and publications.

Additional information on this event, including speaker presentations, can be found on the meeting’s website.

For more details please contact Paul Carmichael at paul.carmichael@unilever.com.