ELIXIR launches new Toxicology Community

A new Community has been formed in ELIXIR to represent the field of toxicology, which is the study of the negative consequences of the interaction of chemicals and living things and the safety of those chemicals. 

ELIXIR Communities bring together experts across ELIXIR Nodes and external partners to coordinate activities within specific life science domains. The addition of toxicology brings the number of Communities in ELIXIR to thirteen, spanning domains such as human data, plant sciences and marine metagenomics and technologies such as Galaxy and proteomics.

Toxicology has strong links with biology, chemistry, pharmacology and medicine, and data are often held in multiple repositories which may not be connected.  New developments such as predictive modelling and systems biology are generating additional data which would be enhanced by integrated storage and retrieval. The new Community will support the integration of standards, tools and resources to aid toxicology research projects.

Currently led by Egon Willighagen, Marvin Martens, Rob Stierum and Chris Evelo from ELIXIR Netherlands, members of the Community published a white paper outlining their vision and plans for the future. The Community has three broad aims:

  • Align open solutions from toxicology research with ELIXIR services and resources
  • Connect toxicology research with ELIXIR Platforms and Communities
  • Develop open community standards

Working towards these goals will enable faster, higher quality and more collaborative research in toxicology.  This is important because it provides information to regulatory agencies and decision makers to prevent or reduce exposure to toxic substances and improve public and environmental health.

About ELIXIR Communities

The ELIXIR Communities Handbook tells you what a Community is, who can join, what the benefits are, and how Communities are structured. It also contains links to key documents related to ELIXIR Communities, and explains the responsibilities and benefits of Community membership.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Communities Coordinator, Katharina Heil (katharina.heil@elixir-europe.org).

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