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There are more than 100,000 chemicals in consumer products. For the vast majority, there is very little information about their toxicity. Traditionally, researchers will test chemicals of interest in animals. As an extreme example, a pesticide undergoes about 30 animal tests, costing about $20 million and consuming more than 10,000 mice, rats, rabbits, and dogs over five years. About 20 kilograms of the chemical are needed for this testing; obtaining such a volume can be quite a challenge for a substance not yet on the market. Other substances receive less scrutiny, but even products with lower regulatory standards, such as industrial chemicals, can require $5 million worth of animal testing before entering the marketplace.
Our group, the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) at Johns Hopkins University, sought a better way. As so many biologists are doing these days, we turned to intelligent computer ...
