Washington, Oct 11 : A report by the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) has offered new tools, which can help recognize the importance of toxicogenomics.

Toxicogenomics is a new field of science that helps in identifying the interaction between chemicals found in the environment and genes in the human body, due to which diseases are caused easily in humans.

The report helps in predicting effects on human health and recommends the integration of toxicogenomics into regulatory decision-making.

The tools provided by toxicogenomic technologies help in better understanding of the mechanisms through which environmental agents initiate and advance disease processes.

Also, other important information can also be provided by these technologies such as- identification of individuals who are more susceptible to disease risks posed by certain environmental agents than the general population.

“Using toxicogenomic technologies will open the door for public health decision makers who need to decide in a timely and accurate manner what chemicals are safe and which ones are not,” Christopher Portier, Ph.D., Associate Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS) and Director, Office of Risk Assessment Research said.

The report from the NAS National Research Council (NRC) entitled “Applications of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Predictive Toxicology and Risk Assessment” stated that the technological difficulties that could have limited the reproducibility of data from toxicogenomic technologies have been resolved.

“National Institutes of Health (NIH) and others have invested in the development of these tools and have already tackled many of the tough technical questions. We are now ready to move to the next phase of technology development, refined standardization and validation, so these tools can be even more useful to regulatory agencies,” Portier said. (ANI)