Science AMA Series: I'm Thomas Hartung, a Professor at Johns Hopkins. I make mini-brains in order to study chemical toxicity & developed a computer model that maps similarities between chemicals to predict toxicity. All of this aims at shifting the field of toxicology away from animal testing. AMA!

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...That’s right, mini-brains. From skin cells. That actually ‘think’ by sending electrical signals. This makes it much easier to study neurotoxicity – opening doors for looking at viruses like Zika and diseases like Alzheimers.

My work focuses on shifting the toxicity testing paradigm in order to improve public health. As former head of the European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods of the European Commission (2002-2008), I remain involved in the implementation of the 2007 National Research Council’s vision document “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century – a vision and a strategy”.

My work furthers the translation of concepts of evidence-based medicine to toxicology (evidence-based toxicology). The goal is systematic assessment of the quality of tools available for regulatory toxicology and the development of new approaches based on annotated pathways of toxicity (the Human Toxome). This includes a map of chemicals that should help regulators, practitioners & researchers alike to predict the toxicity of a chemical without having done toxicity testing, simply just from knowing it’s structure and comparing it to similar chemicals.

I have a broad background in clinical and experimental pharmacology and toxicology (documented in more than 450 publications). Previous work centered on the immune recognition of bacteria, including pyrogen testing, and the induced inflammatory response. In 2009, I relocated to the US and established the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) a laboratory for developmental neurotoxicity research based on genomics and metabolomics.

I will be back at 2 pm EST to answer your questions, AMA!

">Science AMA Series: I'm Thomas Hartung, a Professor at Johns Hopkins. I make mini-brains in order to study chemical toxicity & developed a computer model that maps similarities between chemicals to predict toxicity. All of this aims at shifting the field of toxicology away from animal testing. AMA!