Multi-stakeholder Experts Working Together to Advance Risk Assessment

 

Today's complex risk assessment issues benefit from the collective insights of many disciplines and perspectives. To maximize our impact and reach, TERA uses collaboration as a fundamental and preferred approach to technical issue exploration and problem resolution. From the Alliance for Risk Assessment's Dose Response Workshop Series to peer review meetings and workshops, TERA is uniquely equipped to engage a broad range of relevant experts to build stronger solutions. We engage experts from the wide range of stakeholders and interested parties, to discuss and debate the data and issues in a collaborative fashion, and share results widely.

 

Workshop to Assess the Modes of Action of Lung Tumors in Mice from Exposures to Styrene Ethylbenzene, and Naphthalene


Workshop Report


TERA provided support for a Workshop to Assess the Modes of Action of Lung Tumors in Mice from Exposures to Styrene Ethylbenzene, and Naphthalene that was held on September 17, 2013at the Northern Kentucky University METS Center near Cincinnati Ohio. 


The workshop was organized by the Styrene Information & Research Center (SIRC), who invited four independent experts to serve as a panel to (a) evaluate the data for consistency, quality, and relevance to the mode of action (MOA); (b) critique the MOA hypothesis; (c) identify issues for further consideration and research; and (d) develop an independent report on the workshop.  Dr. Michael Dourson of TERA chaired the science panel, leading the experts in discussion of the available data and critical questions relevant to the proposed MOA.  Ms. Jacqueline Patterson of TERA prepared the panel’s report, which summarized the presentations, discussions, and panel conclusions.
 

 

Multi-stakeholder Workshop on Lessons Learned, Challenges, and Opportunities: The U.S. Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program

This workshop in April 2013 brought together over 240 scientists from federal regulatory agencies, NGOs, industry, contract laboratory scientists, and academic researchers to review and discuss the challenges and lessons learned from the initial experiences with Tier 1 screening assays under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP).  The public workshop, organized and run by TERA provided a framework for retrospective analysis of the data generated and to collect the insight of multiple stakeholders involved in the testing.   A number of key learnings and recommendations related to future endocrine testing and evaluation emanated from the collective sessions and the workshop report is published in ALTEX .

 

Workshop on Mode of Action for Nuclear Receptor Mediated Liver Cancer

Four manuscripts from the September 2010 Nuclear Receptor Workshop organized by TERA have been published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology (January 2014). The workshop explored the development of dose‐response approaches to nuclear receptor‐mediated liver cancer, within a Mode of Action (MOA) Human Relevance Framework (HRF).  Workshop case study teams prepared papers on the AHR, CAR, and PPARalpha receptors, and TERA and the workshop co‐chairs authored an additional overview paper describing the workshop and overarching issues. For each case study a diverse and multi-disciplinary panel of experts from academia, industry, government, and other organizations evaluated the key events leading to liver tumors, and discussed whether the biology of the nuclear receptor necessitates a minimum threshold of ligand to affect activation, gene expression, and subsequent biological and toxicological responses. 


Downloads of the papers published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology are being made available for a limited time free of charge.  Please use the link below to download and save a pdf copy of the series of articles for your personal use in the future. 

 

Publication

 

Peer Consultation Workshop on the Relationship between PAC Profile and Toxicity of Petroleum Substances

In 2007 TERA organized and conducted an expert peer consultation to review a report by Petroleum HPV Testing Group that hypothesized that toxicity observed in repeated-dose dermal toxicity studies is related to polycyclic aromatic compound (PAC) content. A statistical method using the PAC profile to predict dose–response for untested high-boiling petroleum substances was evaluated.  A series of papers describing the PAC method, underlying data, statistical validation, predictive modeling results, and possible applications of the results, has been published.  TERA scientists authored a paper on the peer consultation process, including an evaluation of the PAC authors’ responsiveness to the peer panel’s recommendations.  Assessing the mammalian toxicity of high-boiling point petroleum substances, Reg. Tox and Pharm (Volume 67, Issue 2, Supplement - pp. S1-S94 (1 November 2013).

 

 

 

Recently TERA staff have organized or facilitated additional collaborative expert efforts on a wide-range of issues, including developing trichloroethylene (TCE) risk guidance for contaminated sites, review and integration of asthma hazard characterization methods for consumer products, development of consensus definitions for toxidromes that describe and differentiate the clinical signs and symptoms from exposures to chemicals, and an international conference on isocynates and health.

 

Contact Jacqueline Patterson for more information (patterson@tera.org)