Click here to go back.
'In Silico' AND THE VIRTUAL HUMAN BEING
As computational power and speed have increased, computers have taken their place as one of the most important tools in scientific research. “In Silico,” meaning "performed on computer or via computer simulation," is now in common usage in the scientific world.
Each of the following sections opens up in a new page, with a report on how technology, through increasing scientific exploration and experimentation, can be used to save lives - both human and animal alike.
“As information is accumulated in in silico models, the use of laboratory animals can gradually be replaced by computer models.”
“It [the Strategic Plan] presents the Agency’s vision of how to incorporate a new scientific paradigm and new tools into toxicity testing and risk assessment practices with ever-decreasing reliance on traditional apical approaches. The overall goal of this strategy is to provide the tools and approaches to move from a near exclusive use of animal tests for predicting human health effects to a process that relies more heavily on in vitro assays, especially those using human cell lines.”
VIRTUAL TISSUES and the National Center for Computational Toxicology
“The vision of the program is an EPA that efficiently characterizes exposure, hazard, and risk through the broad use of modern biological tools, information technologies, and computational models.”
The Virtual Liver and Virtual Embryo
“When using the currently available methods, it takes up to two years, hundreds of animals and millions of dollars to find out if a chemical is toxic. Human risk assessment will be more effective, efficient and humane if the biological phenomena involved in the fate chemicals through the body and the liver could be predicted accurately. v-Liver™ aims to simulate these phenomena using large-scale computational models.
