Toxicogenomics: the new frontier in risk analysis.
Risk assessment involves the identification of potential human health hazards, the assessment of the level of exposure by humans to these hazards and the evaluation of the relationship between exposure and response in humans. Research is currently underway to improve the scientific basis of risk assessment through the incorporation of new technologies such as transgenic animals, molecular epidemiology, toxicogenomics, alternative models to animals and mechanism-based mathematical modeling into the estimation of risk in a quantitative manner. This paper briefly discusses these technologies and how each is being employed for more scientifically sound risk assessments.
Simmons
P Trinia
PT
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Laboratory of Computational Biology and Risk Analysis, MD A3-06, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA. simmons4@niehs.nih.gov
Portier
Christopher J
CJ
D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D023281:Genomics / Q000639:trends*; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014116:Toxicology / Q000639:trends*