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In 2007, OECD started the “Molecular Screening for Characterizing Individual Chemicals and Chemical Categories Project” (Molecular Screening Project). This project evaluates a number of selected chemicals in a series of molecular screening in vitro assays (High Throughput Screening (HTS)) with the aim of establishing a strategy for rationally and economically prioritizing chemicals for further evaluation.

The project is led by the United States and supervised by extended Advisory Group on Molecular Screening and Toxicogenomics. In late 2008 several subgroups related to specific pathways, mechanisms and effects as well as nomination of target chemicals and database development were set up under a cooperation between the US and other member countries and research institutions.

Subgroups under the Molecular Screening Project (as of March 2011)

Relevant activities by Member countries

The US EPA started the ToxCast™ Program in 2007, which forms the core activity of the OECD Molecular Screening Project above. Using data from high throughput screening (HTS) bioassays, the program is building computational models to forecast the potential human toxicity of chemicals.