The European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals has announced the launch of a new initiative which will accelerate the use of metabolomics technology to improve safety assessment of chemicals.
The technology has the potential to transform chemical risk assessment by providing a deeper view of the molecular events underpinning toxicity than is currently possible but, because it is so new, scientists do not yet have standard procedures for applying metabolomics or reporting its findings, both of which are needed for chemical risk assessment.
The MEtabolomics standaRds Initiative in Toxicology (MERIT) has brought together a team of international experts to address the problem by defining best practices and minimum reporting requirements when metabolomics is used in regulatory toxicology.
