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SEURAT-1 Recommendations for future research in the field of predictive toxicology now available From the outset of SEURAT-1, an important commitment of the SEURAT-1 cluster has been to disseminate research results as they appear and to report on the effectiveness and evolution of the SEURAT-1 research strategy. Although the SEURAT-1 annual book is a key instrument to achieve this, a Strategy Group was recently established to reflect on progress and advise on how SEURAT should evolve scientifically to ultimately realise its vision. The SEURAT-1 Planning Group is hereby proud to publish its recommendations for future research in the field of predictive toxicology (download it here). The document is also published in “Archives of Toxicology”. |
This FP7 Research Initiative was created through a call for proposals by the European Commission that was published in June 2009. The Cosmetics Europe industry offered to match the European Commission’s funds to make a total of EUR 50 million available to try to fill current gaps in scientific knowledge and accelerate the development of non-animal test methods. The Research Initiative focuses on the complex area of repeated dose toxicity.
The Research Initiative is a first step to addressing the long term strategic target of "Safety Evaluation Ultimately Replacing Animal Testing (SEURAT)". It is called "SEURAT-1", indicating that more steps have to be taken before the final goal will be reached. SEURAT-1 will develop knowledge and technology building blocks required for the development of solutions for the replacement of current repeated dose systemic toxicity testing in vivo used for the assessment of human safety.
The SEURAT-1 Research Initiative is composed of six research projects, which started on 1 January 2011 and will run for five years. These projects will closely cooperate with a common goal and combine the research efforts of over 70 European universities, public research institutes and companies.
The collaboration between these six research projects, the dissemination of results, the cooperation with other international research teams, and the continuous updating on research priorities will be facilitated by the coordination and support action project “COACH”.
SEURAT-1 has been launched on 1 January 2011 as a cluster, composed of six complementary research projects:
- SCR&Tox, “Stem Cells for Relevant Efficient Extended and Normalized Toxicology”
- HeMiBio, “Hepatic Microfluidic Bioreactor”
- DETECTIVE, “Detection of endpoints and biomarkers of repeated dose toxicity using in vitro systems”
- COSMOS, “Integrated In Silico Models for the Prediction of Human Repeated Dose Toxicity of COSMetics to Optimise Safety”
- NOTOX, “Predicting long-term toxic effects using computer models based onsystems characterization of organotypic cultures “
- ToxBank, “Supporting Integrated Data Analysis and Servicing of Alternative Testing Methods in Toxicology”
And a coordination and support action:
- COACH, “Coordination of projects on new approaches to replace current repeated dose systemic toxicity testing of cosmetics and chemicals”
These seven projects that constitute the SEURAT-1 initiative where selected through the call for proposals “FP7-HEALTH-2010-Alternative-Testing-Strategies” and receive funding support from the European Commission’s FP7 HEALTH Programme and from Cosmetics Europe.
This website has been set-up and is maintained by the coordination and support action COACH.