Current approaches to toxicology for use in regulatory processes focus on predicting adverse effects from costly whole-animal tests and lack the efficiency necessary to assess the hundreds of thousands of chemicals and mixtures that are produced globally. In the past decade, there has been much work towards transitioning from conventional testing methods to predictive, high-throughput screening (HTS) assays. Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large class of chemicals that have recently gained attention from the environmental health and safety communities because of their widespread presence in the environment. These ‘Forever Chemicals’ are used in common household products, food packaging, and fire-fighting foams and have found their way into the tissues of nearly all humans and wildlife. PFAS have structures resembling fatty acids and may activate nuclear receptors, bind to proteins, and interact with membranes. Of the thousands of PFAS used by consumers and in industry, very few have been thoroughly characterized for potential adverse effects, and even those lack data to adequately represent ecologically relevant effects. Determining the effects of PFAS in humans and in wildlife can be achieved through the use of cell-based models.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 3:30 – 4:30 pm
Zoom meeting ID: 275 100 2349
Password: 145977