The report of our online stakeholder survey is available here. Learn about benefits and barriers to QSARs use according to specialists, regulators and industry.
The results of this survey have been published in the open access literature as follow:
Mays C, Benfenati E and Pardoe S.
Use and perceived benefits and barriers of QSAR models for REACH: findings from a questionnaire to stakeholders
Chemistry Central Journal 2012, 6:159 doi:10.1186/1752-153X-6-159
The short questionnaire is our invitation to policy makers, industry managers, educators, political leaders, NGOs, investors, citizens and all others who are not specialists in toxicology to comment on some of the issues that are raised and/or addressed by computer-based (in silico) methods.
We really hope you can take a few minutes to complete it. Please also email the link to others who may be interested.
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.
The e-book "Theory, guidance and applications on QSAR and REACH" has been developed with the aim of providing an accessible source of information about in silico models and their use in toxicology for regulatory purposes.
For decades, QSAR models have been used in the USA to evaluate a series of properties of chemicals. Indeed, Section 5 of TSCA (Toxic Substance Control Act) requires a manufacturer and/or importer of a new chemical substance to submit a premanufacture notice (PMN) to the US EPA 90 days before commencing the manufacture or import of a new chemical. Decisions have often been taken without further experimental data. The US EPA instigated and promoted the development and use of a series of QSAR models to predict properties of interest.
In Denmark, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency has developed and used QSARs for regulatory use. (See FAQ: ‘Are QSARs expensive or free to use’.)
The leaflet is intended as a concise and accessible explanation of in silico methods, and the issues around them, for people who want to know about them, and/or what to understand what the ORCHESTRA project is about.
The leaflet is available in English, French, German and Italian languages.
Many QSAR models have been developed and some are publicly available. Depending on the purpose different models should be used. For instance, for REACH certain requirements have been defined (link to above). For regulatory purposes transparency is highly preferred, in order to provide full information on the model. This also complies with the OECD principles (link). As a consequence, the user should verify if full details on the model are available. For commercial models there may be limitations.
These are some examples of publicly available models developed within the EC projects evaluated within ORCHESTRA.
The short questionnaire is our invitation to policy makers, industry managers, educators, political leaders, NGOs, investors, citizens and all others who are not specialists in toxicology to comment on some of the issues that are raised and/or addressed by computer-based (in silico) methods.
Learn more about in silico, browse resources,
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