New potentially toxic chemicals and materials require strict safety assessments to comply with health and regulatory requirements. This relies heavily on in vivo studies, which are unable to fully address potential toxicity, while also omitting environmental aspects and life cycle assessment.
TOXBOX seeks a solution to the limitations in chemical toxicity assessment through a modular, integrated, and ergonomic tool for safety and sustainability evaluation, with high throughput and predictive capacity. Building on a prototype developed in a previous EC-funded project (PANBioRA), a microfluidic system will be developed that will incorporate electrochemical sensors, microscopes/cameras, and cytokine measurement.
The intelligent combination of in vitro assays and in silico modeling will result in a system capable of better predicting human and environmental safety and providing a more accurate understanding of short- and long-term toxic effects.