Key NICEATM and ICCVAM Accomplishments and Impact
Key accomplishments of ICCVAM and ICCVAM member agencies in support of the ICCVAM mission during 2020 and 2021 include:
- Publication of Defined Approach Guideline. In 2021, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development issued Guideline 497, Defined Approaches on Skin Sensitisation. Drafted and sponsored by ICCVAM agency scientists and international partners, Guideline 497 is the first internationally harmonized guideline to describe a non-animal approach that can be used to replace an animal test to identify skin sensitizers.
- Recommendations on Measuring Progress in Promoting Use of Alternative Methods. In March 2021, the ICCVAM Metrics Workgroup published findings and recommendations on the measurement of federal agency progress in promoting the use of alternative toxicological methods. The workgroup recommended that each agency develop its own metrics that are relevant and practical to their unique situation.
- Workgroup on Microphysiological Systems for COVID Research. ICCVAM agencies established an international collaborative workgroup to coordinate the use of microphysiological systems to reduce animal use in studies of COVID-19 and future emerging infectious diseases. A key accomplishment of the workgroup was the establishment of a COVID-19 disease portal in an existing microphysiological systems database.
- Further Development of the Collaborative Acute Toxicity Modeling Suite. The ICCVAM Acute Toxicity Workgroup organized a global project that produced the Collaborative Acute Toxicity Modeling Suite (CATMoS), an online resource for in silico screening of organic chemicals for acute oral toxicity. During 2020 and 2021, the utility of CATMoS for predicting acute oral toxicity in research and regulatory contexts was explored in projects conducted by ICCVAM agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- Expansion of NICEATM’s Integrated Chemical Environment. NICEATM created the Integrated Chemical Environment to provide curated data and tools for safety assessment of chemicals. Updates of the Integrated Chemical Environment Search tool during 2020 and 2021 enabled search results to be sent to query other data resources. Updates also allowed users to explore similarities among chemicals, find information on chemical use categories, search for structurally similar chemicals, and view and interact with concentration–response curves from curated high-throughput screening data.