Head: Kristina Kejlová, M.Sc., Ph.D.
The Department of Alternative Toxicological Methods performs alternative laboratory tests in vitro in model biological systems and in silico using QSAR models. The test results serve as the basis for safety evaluation of consumer products including cosmetics and their ingredients, medical devices, chemical substances and preparations, children products and toys, personal protection devices and other products.
The laboratories are accredited by the Czech Accreditation Institute as a testing laboratory according to EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and received a GLP Compliance Certificate issued by the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic.
The Department participates in development, validation and implementation of alternative toxicological methods, namely for the evaluation of skin and eye irritation, phototoxicity, skin penetration/absorption, sensitization, acute and repeated dose toxicity, endocrine disruption, genotoxicity and mutagenicity. Additionally, there are employed in silico methods, QSAR models, read-across analysis and trend analysis, expert systems and databases for assessment of toxicological indexes and physicochemical behaviors of chemical compounds and their mixtures. One member of the Department works in the OECD (Q)SAR Application Toolbox Management Group which develops a QSAR Toolbox to make (Q)SAR technology readily accessible, transparent, and less demanding in terms of infrastructure costs.
The Department is also involved in reference activities in the field of public health protection and promotion, provides expert services to manufacturers and control authorities, ensures unique toxicological procedures for the assessment of toxicological properties of substances and products in the scope of the National Reference Laboratory for Experimental Immunotoxicology, National Reference Centre for Cosmetics and National Reference Laboratory for Genetic Toxicology.
The Department pursues research and publishing activities in the framework of national and international grant projects, ensures participation of experts representing the Czech Republic in working groups and committees of the European Commission and European Council, in peer-review panels of ESAC-ECVAM and ICCVAM, OECD, CEN and ISO, namely in the field of cosmetics and alternative methods, and became the basis of the 3R Centre of the Czech Republic dealing with the development and promotion of alternative methods to animal experiments. Experts participate in the standard-setting process on the level of ISO, CEN and OECD and contribute to the proposal of national and international method guidelines and recommendations.
Laboratories of Genetic Toxicology perform cytogenetic analysis of human peripheral lymphocytes of subjects under occupational or environmental exposure to mutagens/ carcinogens and determination of mutagenicity of chemicals, ambient air, water and urine by means of the Ames test.
The activities of the Department and implementation of alternative methods were supported by the ERDF/ESF project “International competitiveness of NIPH in research, development and education in alternative toxicological methods” (No. Z.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000860).
More information and references
Tests performed by the Department of Alternative Toxicological Methods
National Reference Laboratory for Experimental Immunotoxicology
National Reference Centre for Cosmetics
National Reference Laboratory for Genetic Toxicology