title: Elucidating environmental dimensions of neurological disorders and disease: Understanding new tools from federal chemical testing programs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Federal agencies are making significant investments to advance predictive approaches to evaluate chemical hazards and risks. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) believes that engagement with the broader scientific community is critical to building and maintaining a strong biological foundation for these approaches.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  On June 18-19, 2015, EDF organized a meeting to 1) foster a conversation between federal scientists advancing predictive approaches and environmental health researchers investigating environmental exposures and neurological outcomes, and 2) explore opportunities and challenges for the use of federal chemical high-throughput in vitro screening (HTS) data in hypothesis-driven research toward, ultimately, improved data for public health decision-making.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The meeting achieved its objectives. Government scientists showcased their chemical testing programs and vision for how emerging data may be used to meet agency missions. Environmental health researchers shared their experiences using federal HTS data, offered recommendations for strengthening federal HTS platforms, and expressed great interest in continued engagement with evolving federal chemical testing initiatives.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The meeting provided an invaluable exchange between two scientific communities with a shared interest in protecting public health from harmful environmental exposures, but who have not sufficiently engaged with each other. Discussions identified opportunities and work ahead for the use of HTS data in hypothesis-driven research. Though the meeting focused on neurological outcomes, the purpose, objectives and experience of the meeting are broadly applicable. EDF strongly encourages more discourse and collaboration between federal and non-government scientists working to understand environmental influences on health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Defense Fund, 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste. 600, Washington, DC 20009, USA. Electronic address: jmcpartland@edf.org.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McPartland
authors.affiliation: Dantzker Consulting, LLC, 2613 N. Harrison St., Arlington, VA 22207, USA. Electronic address: heather@dantzker.com.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dantzker
authors.affiliation: Environmental Defense Fund, 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste. 600, Washington, DC 20009, USA. Electronic address: cportier@edf.org.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Portier
mesh_terms: D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003657:Decision Making; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D035082:Federal Government; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006801:Humans; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011634:Public Health; D055818:Public-Private Sector Partnerships; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
keywords: High-throughput; In vitro; NIEHS/NTP; Tox21; ToxCast™; US EPA