Chemical testing – without animal testing_Fraunhofer Representative Office Beijing

Ein wichtiges Instrument innerhalb eines NGRA, um Datenlücken zu schließen und Tierversuche zu vermeiden, ist Read-Across. Dabei werden Daten einer gut untersuchten Chemikalie auf eine ähnliche, weniger gut untersuchte Chemikalie übertragen – vorausgesetzt, ihre Struktur, Eigenschaften und Wirkmechanismen sind ausreichend vergleichbar.

© Fraunhofer ITEM/Ralf Mohr
Within the Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) framework, read-across constitutes a key approach to addressing data gaps and avoiding animal testing. It involves extrapolating data from a well-characterized chemical to a structurally analogous but less-characterized counterpart — provided that their chemical structure, physicochemical properties, and mechanisms of action exhibit sufficient comparability.

How can chemicals be assessed safely in the future — with fewer animal tests while maintaining robust scientific validity? The European research community is working intensively to advance this transformation. An important step towards regulatory implementation is marked by the new EU Commission Roadmap for the phased elimination of animal testing in chemical safety assessment. The Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM is actively driving this development forward — for instance, through the development of the ASPA workflow within the EU project RISK-HUNT3R.

MORE