CAESAR models for developmental toxicity.
BACKGROUND
The new REACH legislation requires assessment of a large number of chemicals in the European market for several endpoints. Developmental toxicity is one of the most difficult endpoints to assess, on account of the complexity, length and costs of experiments. Following the encouragement of QSAR (in silico) methods provided in the REACH itself, the CAESAR project has developed several models.


RESULTS
Two QSAR models for developmental toxicity have been developed, using different statistical/mathematical methods. Both models performed well. The first makes a classification based on a random forest algorithm, while the second is based on an adaptive fuzzy partition algorithm. The first model has been implemented and inserted into the CAESAR on-line application, which is java-based software that allows everyone to freely use the models.


CONCLUSIONS
The CAESAR QSAR models have been developed with the aim to minimize false negatives in order to make them more usable for REACH. The CAESAR on-line application ensures that both industry and regulators can easily access and use the developmental toxicity model (as well as the models for the other four endpoints).
Cassano
Antonio
A
Laboratory of Chemistry and Environmental Toxicology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan, Italy. antonio.cassano@marionegri.it.
Manganaro
Alberto
A
Martin
Todd
T
Young
Douglas
D
Piclin
Nadège
N
Pintore
Marco
M
Bigoni
Davide
D
Benfenati
Emilio
E