ITS SkinSens to be displayed at EuroTox 2018

Douglas Connect and Biopredic make joint presentation at Eurotox

You are a European cosmetic company and your lab has come up with a new chemical compound that promises softer skin. But, first, you must test the compound to determine if it can trigger sensitivity. Testing on lab animals is out - that’s been banned for cosmetics in the EU since 2013. Instead, your lab will use an Integrated Testing Strategy (ITS) to predict skin sensitivity, combining in silico computer models and what is already known about similar chemical compounds (in vitro data). If a similar compound is already known to cause sensitisation, the model will be able to predict the probability that your new compound could as well.

Integrated Testing Strategies take a number of approaches, including one developed by Dr. Joanna Jaworska, Principal Scientist, Procter & Gamble. Using Bayesian networks, Dr. Jaworska’s approach improved on earlier ones by tolerating missing information and basing probability of skin sensitisation on cumulative evidence. It could also provide a sound estimate of confidence and uncertainty in the ITS assessment. But Dr. Jaworska realized that her approach was complicated to use.