Cellumen, Inc., a discovery and early safety assessment company, was selected by the EPA to provide its CellCiphr analysis in the second phase of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ToxCast™ program.
In the first proof-of-concept phase, Cellumen generated hepatic toxicity data that served as pivotal features of predictive models reported at the ToxCast Data Analysis Summit in May 2009. These Cellular Systems Biology (CBS) models of hepato-toxicity form the basis of Cellumen’s expanded engagement with the EPA, in which thousands of CellCiphr profiles will be generated. Each phase of the program increases the number of samples in the data set with the expectation that several thousand chemicals will be tested. Cellumen’s eligibility to participate in additional phases could generate $5.5 million for the Company!
“Cellumen is honored that our Cellular Systems Biology technology has been selected for the second phase of the EPA’s ToxCast Program,” said Patricia “Kate” A. Johnston, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Cellumen. “We look forward to continuing our work with the EPA and delivering our value proposition to identify safety liabilities early and identify mechanisms of action with a cost-effective and powerful platform.”
Cellumen first entered into an agreement with the EPA in April 2007 as part of the EPA’s multi-year ToxCast Program. ToxCast was designed to develop a cost-effective approach for prioritizing the toxicity testing of large numbers of chemicals in a short period of time. When completed, the forecasted potential human toxicity of chemicals will provide EPA regulatory programs with information to prioritize chemicals for more detailed toxicological evaluations, and lead to more efficient use of animal testing.
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