? ? This meeting is being organized by the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. The meeting is called """"""""Creating a Humane and Efficient Approach to Developmental Neurotoxicity Testing"""""""". The meeting will take place March 13-15, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Reston Hotel, Reston, Virginia (close to Washington, DC Dulles International Airport). The meeting is targeted at participants from the USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific who have an interest in methods of testing for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). The investigators anticipate attracting scientific researchers and neuro-developmental toxicologists from industry, government and academia, as well as policy analysts, regulators, children's health and animal welfare advocates. ? ? The goal of the meeting is to bring together experts in the field of developmental neurotoxicity testing to examine alternative methods to the use of whole animals in DNT testing while at the same time exploring the policy issues regarding the validation and regulation of new methods. It is anticipated that the outcome of this first meeting will be: i) an understanding of current practice and future possibilities regarding DNT testing, and ii) an action plan which identifies specific tasks or activities to help take forward the development, sharing, or validation, of new testing methods for DNT. It is intended that this will be the first in a series of meetings which will take place every 18 months as part of CAAT's TestSmart DNT program. Long-term, the TestSmart DNT program is aimed at identifying a battery of in vitro and non-mammalian methods for DNT testing that meets government requirements, enhances decision-making, and promotes humane science. ? ? Key topics to be covered in this meeting include: Developmental Neurobiology; Policy Integration Issues from the Perspectives of Children's Health, Animal Welfare, Environment and Government; Validation - Scientific and Regulatory; In Vitro Systems and Developmental Neurotoxicity; Alternative/Non-Mammalian Species (Model Systems In Vitro; Endpoints for DNT In Vitro; High Throughput Technologies and """"""""Omics""""""""; Fish, Worms, Birds, Flies and Others); Computational Toxicology - A Regulatory Perspective; Asia Pacific and European Perspectives on DNT; New Frontiers in DNT/The New Biology. ? ? ? ?
| Lein, Pamela; Locke, Paul; Goldberg, Alan (2007) Meeting report: alternatives for developmental neurotoxicity testing. Environ Health Perspect 115:764-8 |
