ToxTracker is Toxys’ unique animal-free test system for identification of potentially carcinogenic properties of novel chemicals. ToxTracker combines multiple biomarkers to get mechanistic insight into the of action of (geno)toxic compounds. The assay not only includes markers for DNA damage, but also for a non-genotoxic mode of action, including oxidative stress, protein misfolding and cytotoxicity. The combination of multiple biomarkers results in a rich dataset and an extensive toxicological profile of the tested compounds tested.
Scheduled developments of ToxPlot
With the MIT grant, Toxplot will be further developed into a software platform that can be used by toxicology laboratories in the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics industry. The developed ToxPlot software package will consist of:
- ToxPlot analysis tools for hypothesis-free data mining and analysis of the rich datasets obtained by ToxTracker.
- A ToxTracker database containing extensive (geno)toxicity data from a large set of reference compounds.
- Quantitative modelling and visualisation modules for quantitative analysis of the toxic properties of compounds to improve human risk assessment.
Cross-sector collaboration
This project combines the innovative in vitro toxicity screening tool developed by Toxys and the unique bioinformatics expertise at Omnigen. The combination of these disciplines will allow users to extract the most information from the biological data, thus adding value and insight into how their compounds respond.
Omnigen’s experience in working with genetic data and developing analysis tools is essential to deliver an user friendly software package with the necessary analytical power to get the most information out of the rich data sets generated by using ToxTracker. This will allow Toxys to offer the ToxPlot software together with a licensing option to their unique ToxTracker assay.