Activities of the Tri-Services Toxicology Consortium
The mission of the Tri-Services Toxicology Consortium is to communicate, coordinate, and optimize toxicology needs throughout DoD by providing a central point of contact to DoD toxicology resources. The Consortium currently includes over 200 individuals from 11 organizations within DoD, seven of which have laboratories. Given the shared missions, individuals from the Veterans Administration and Department of Homeland Security are also invited to participate.
The Consortium convened four meetings during 2020 and 2021. These meetings began with brief presentations of new work including efforts in toxicity of novel compounds in various in vitro and in vivo systems, improving in silico predictions of molecular targets, characterization of toxicity using evidence integration techniques, advances in PBPK modeling and development, use of NAMs in phased approaches to toxicity data collection and hazard assessment, and new developments in understanding the mechanism for toxicity for chemicals of military interest. Significant recent efforts included:
- Substance-specific technical reviews and publications concerning chromium, lead, trichloroethylene, and selected PFAS.
- Identification of toxicity and biomarkers of exposure to diesel exhaust using a circulated human multi-tissue organoid platform.
- Investigations into biomarkers of pulmonary toxicants.
- Evaluation of fluorine-free aqueous-film forming foam formulations.
- Use of in silico methods, including QSAR models, to predict skin sensitization, to address mixtures, and to derive metabolic parameters from in vitro data.
- Continued DoD technical representation on relevant government and scientific committees.