No Animals Harmed: Toward a Paradigm Shift in Toxicity Testing

Advances in science have led to a new vision for toxicity testing based on human cell systems that will be more predictive, have higher throughput, cost less money, and be more comparable to real-life exposures in humans, while using many fewer animals. This vision, embraced by leading scientific and regulatory groups, is a paradigm shift from animal-based to human-based testing that signals a major change in focus and promotes the development of new approaches to understanding the toxicity of chemicals in humans. Information gained from these new approaches will likely affect other areas of research as well, leading to less reliance on animals in the future.