News + Events

Next week, RIFM scientists will share their work with their peers in academia, industry, government, and non-profit sectors at the 12^th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences: Replace. Reduce. Refine. 3 Rs over the Edge. The World Congress was established in 1993 to advance the 3Rs, which stand for reducing, refining, and replacing the use of animals in the life sciences. This year, the annual event runs from August 27^th through the 31^st in Niagara Falls, Canada.

During the World Congress, RIFM’s Aurelia Lapczynski, Principal Scientist, Environmental Toxicology, will present as part of a Wednesday, August 30^th session: Advances in NAMs for EcoTox Testing & Risk Assessment, Part 2: Computational Tools and Frameworks. Lapczynski’s presentation, Data-driven Decision-making Using Advanced High-throughput Environmental Risk Assessment of Fragrance Materials, outlines RIFM’s 2002 Environmental Framework and critical refinements RIFM proposes as part of a manuscript it is preparing for publication.

“The RIFM Framework provides the backbone for the environmental risk assessment of fragrance ingredients,” Lapczynski explained. “The update, which we’re calling Environmental Framework 2.0, replaces some older methodologies with more precise contemporary new approach methodologies, or NAMS, such as the ecological exposure threshold of concern, or EETC. The EETC identifies the level of environmental exposure beneath which there is no appreciable risk of harm.”

(Watch a video about RIFM’s Environmental Framework 2.0.)

Also attending World Congress this year are RIFM’s Isabelle Lee, PhD, Senior Scientist, Dermatotoxicology, and Isabella Schember, PhD, Safety Assessment Team Researcher. Dr. Lee leads RIFM’s skin sensitization endpoint, and Dr. Schember supports the endpoint.

RIFM’s Skin Sensitization Team will highlight some of their work in the poster presentation Deriving a Point of Departure for Skin Sensitization Risk Assessment of Fragrance Ingredients Based on OECD in vitro Methods, on display Monday through Wednesday.

“Several NAMs have been developed for skin sensitization hazard assessment, but some challenge still remains in defining a point of departure for dermal quantitative risk assessment using NAMs,” explained Dr. Lee. “These regression models based on OECD in vitro methods are a significant step forward toward animal free safety assessments.”

Drs. Lee and Schember will be available to expand on the poster at the event.

(Read Dr. Lee’s explanation of the NESIL, short for No Expected Sensitization Induction Level, and how it helps RIFM ensure the safe use of fragrances.)