Citizens

Improving realistic use of in silico methods

Submitted by rgdiaza on Fri, 2013-02-15 16:56

Document Subject:

The ORCHESTRA layman's report, entitled "Improving realistic use of in silico methods", gives an overview of the most significant resources developed by ORCHESTRA for people involved or interested in the use of in silico methods in REACH.

Each resource is briefly explained and the readers are provided with links or information about where they can download it or find more about it. This report has been developed with users’ needs in mind and together with the ORCHESTRA website, the introductive leaflet and the e-book is an important source of information.

Document:

orchestra-laymanreport.pdf

What are in silico methods?

In silico methods simply means computer-based methods. In this context they are computer-based methods for assessing the toxicity of chemicals.

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The use of "in silico methods"

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1. Technical survey for those involved in toxicology

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2. Non-technical survey for citizens, policy makers, industry managers, educators, political leaders, NGOs, investors and others

Documents and Faqs

This page lists various documents published by Orchestra. Please visit also the structured Documents page to find out more

The debate

There is a debate on the use of QSAR in particular, and in silico models in general. The acceptability of these tools depends on the user and the purpose. Within that debate, the major criticisms are that ‘In silico models are not reliable’, that ‘toxicity is too complex to be modelled’ and that ‘only the real experiment on the animal will provide the real result’.