In the time since the most commonly used toxicity tests were conceived, there has been a revolution in biology and biotechnology.

Advances in tissue engineering and robotics have given birth to rapid “high throughput” in vitro (cell culture) systems, while emerging technologies such as bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, metabonomics, systems biology, and in silico (computer-based) systems offer still more potential alternatives to animal use.

In June 2007, the US National Academy of Sciences called for a major paradigm shift in toxicology that would “rely less heavily on animal studies and instead focus on in vitro methods that evaluate chemicals’ effects on biological processes using cells, cell lines, or cellular components, preferably of human origin. The new approach would generate more-relevant data to evaluate risks people face, expand the number of chemicals that could be scrutinized, and reduce the time, money, and animals involved in testing.”