TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
The University of Birmingham has formed new spinout company to provide “fast, reliable predictions” of potential hazard to human health or the environment from chemicals using methods developed by researchers from the university’s School of Biosciences,
The company, Michabo Health Science. has formed a team experienced in pioneering methods to assess chemical safety without the need for vertebrate animal testing.
Professors Mark Viant and John Colbourne, at the university have specialised in developing novel laboratory and computational methods to deliver higher throughput precision toxicology testing. Their methods measure thousands of molecular responses to chemical exposure, coupled with computational science to group chemicals and predict their potential hazards.
Michabo reported that, in December 2021, The European Chemicals Agency published its first group assessments which demonstrated increased efficiency of safety assessments of new chemicals. It said it is is already working with chemical companies and international chemical regulators to provide hazard prediction for groups of chemicals.
Viant, said the swiftest way to gain new knowledge of the ways chemicals can affect biology and increase certainty in safety assessments is to assess chemicals in groups.” Colbourne, whose research focusses on the effects on genes from chemicals in the environment, said: “There are simply too many chemicals to assess using traditional methods, and grouping will reduce both the time and number of animals needed for chemical assessment.”
Michabo said it expects to develop and demonstrate new methods of evaluating chemical safety to address the needs of the consumer products, cosmetics and agrichemical markets.
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