Non-animal-based safety assessment: within reach or over-sold?

The Long-Range Research Initiative Programme (LRI) of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) is organising its 17th annual workshop on 18 and 19 November 2015 in Brussels. This year, the Annual CEFIC-LRI Workshop will focus on non–animal-based safety assessment and will showcase the outcome and impact of several LRI projects completed in 2014-2015 from the fields of environmental risk assessment, bioconcentration, chemo-informatics, exposure modeling, skin sensitization and acceptance of innovation.

Registration is now open and free!
The Cefic-LRI workshop is a must-attend event for the scientific community and an excellent networking opportunity for policymakers. This year’s venue is Le Plaza Hotel Brussels.

On the first day the LRI programme will present the winner of the LRI Innovative Science Award for 2015 and also catch up with the progress of winner of the 2014 LRI Award winner Dr Alexandra Antunes (pictured below) of the Centro de Química Estrutural, Complexo Interdisciplinar Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal and her work on Covalent Modification of Histones by Carcinogens: a novel proteomic approach toward the assessment of chemically-induced cancers.

The second day will feature plenary sessions on the impact of LRI projects with a focus on environmental risk assessment, bioconcentration, chemo-informatics, exposure modelling, skin sensitisation, and acceptance of innovation.

And during the afternoon of Day 2, Prof Ian Kimber of the University of Manchester will moderate a dedicated panel discussion on non-animal-based safety assessment with the working title: “Non-animal based safety assessment: within reach or over-sold? Do we need to set back expectations?”

The panel will focus on current and future developments in non-animal toxicity testing methods and examine visionary versus unrealistic regulatory expectations in view of REACH 2018. Key questions include:

• What progress has been made in assessing risks to man without generating in vivo test data?
• Has the use of in vitro technologies, “shifted” in the right direction?
• What can be achieved with new developments and by when?
• What are the biggest challenges? 
• What is really needed to get 'omics' accepted in regulation?

The members of the panel will be Dr Karel de Raat (ECHA), Dr Karen Niven (Shell), Dr Alan Poole (ECETOC), Dr Rick Becker (American Chemistry Council), Dr Raffaella Corvi (JRC/EURL-ECVAM), Prof Jim Bridges (Univ. Surrey), and Dr Kirsty Reid (Eurogroup for Animals).

 

For more details go on the 17th Annual CEFIC-LRI workshop visit the dedicated webpage.

A draft programme for the workshop can be downloaded here.

To register for the event, please click here.

You can follow the event on Twitter via the hashtag #lri2015

For more information on the workshop, please contact Dr. Bruno Hubesch, LRI Programme Manager or the LRI Secretariat.

More about LRI
The Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) programme is a major voluntary initiative of the European chemical industry to support the long-term sustainability of its sector and European society. Through the programme we hope to identify the hazards posed by chemicals and improve the methods available for assessing the associated risks.

The LRI sponsors high-quality research of a standard publishable in a reputable peer-reviewed journal, and seeks to provide sound scientific advice on which industry and regulatory bodies can draw-on to respond quickly and accurately to the public's concerns.