This capability reflects an interest in characterizing factors involved in the induction of an adverse health effect in a very quantitative way. A second level effort must relate to the uncertainties in the data and in extrapolations that must be made from the data. A particular problem is understanding the implications of small perturbations of biological systems by a chemical exposure relative to the normal variations in these systems that are physiological. The capability will use data from experimental models that are appropriate to the customer's problem, but with an emphasis on validating the use of such systems for the purposes of human health risk assessment. Toxicokinetics and Metabolism.
Future growth is anticipated to focus on molecular biology of xenobiotic metabolism.
In particular, experimental toxicology can validate the use of aquatic systems to determine human health risks from various environmental exposures and to validate specific technological advances in water treatment. This capability also relies upon the capabilities identified in statistics and applied mathematics and can employ some of the capabilities identified under molecular sciences. Experimental toxicology makes a critical contribution to PNNL's risk and safety analysis capability, and the health protection and dosimetry capability.