Welcome to the Special Stakeholder Edition of the ONTOX Newsletter!

Throughout the ONTOX project, significant progress has been made in advancing New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), artificial intelligence (AI), computational toxicology, and probabilistic risk assessment.

This special edition highlights key developments relevant to industry, regulators, and applied scientists, including the ONTOX Hub, advanced AI and computational tools, and the first insights into the ONTOX Probabilistic Risk Assessment (OPRA) approach. We also present recent OECD-relevant activities supporting the integration of AI into chemical safety assessment, alongside practical ONTOX solutions for industry, previously showcased at the EPAA NAMs Designathon.

We value your feedback! The ONTOX editorial team invites you to share your questions and perspectives by completing the short stakeholder survey at the end of this newsletter.

Thank you for being part of the ONTOX stakeholder community!

 ONTOX Hub and Marketplace

Facilitating access to ONTOX methodologies, computational resources, and scientific expertise and knowledge.

The ONTOX Hub and Marketplace is being developed as a central platform to facilitate access to repeated-dose toxicity and next-generation risk assessment approaches developed within the ONTOX consortium and support their continued use beyond the lifetime of the project.

The ONTOX Hub and Marketplace is intended to support the accessibility and exploitation of ONTOX outputs, while also facilitating interaction between users and developers of individual methods and tools. For regulators, industry scientists, risk assessors, and academic researchers, the ONTOX Hub provides a structured entry point for identifying methodologies relevant to specific toxicological questions or assessment scenarios.

The official launch of public access is scheduled for the 21st of October 2026 via our ONTOX website.

Advanced AI and Computational tools in ONTOX

Supporting evidence integration, prediction and data-gap filling in toxicological assessment

Artificial intelligence and advanced computational methods increasingly contribute to analysing and interpreting complex toxicological datasets. Several tools and platforms have been developed or applied within the ONTOX research framework.

OPRA

An AI-supported probabilistic framework for next-generation risk assessment

A central challenge in next-generation chemical risk assessment is integrating heterogeneous evidence streams into a scientifically transparent and quantitatively interpretable assessment framework. The ONTOX AI-supported Probabilistic Risk Assessment approach (OPRA) is being developed to address this challenge.

The objective is to move beyond purely deterministic assessment paradigms and to enable risk characterisation that explicitly accounts for the probability and uncertainty associated with individual evidence streams and modelling assumptions.

Such information may be particularly relevant when integrating NAM-derived evidence and computational predictions, where quantitative uncertainty characterisation is essential for transparent decision-making. 

ONTOX Solutions for Industry: From Innovation to Application

How can NAMs help address practical challenges in chemical safety assessment? ONTOX researchers have developed six innovative NAM-based solutions exploring applications in systemic toxicity assessment. These include approaches for predicting liver toxicity, high-throughput physiologically based kinetic (PBK) modelling, AI-assisted extraction of kinetic parameters, and transcriptomics-based profiling of chemical responses.
These solutions illustrate how experimental, mechanistic and computational approaches can support chemical prioritisation, hazard assessment and the transition towards animal-free safety evaluation.

Discover the six ONTOX solutions presented at the EPAA Designation and explore their potential applications.

Your feedback is invaluable in helping us assess the relevance, usability and future impact of ONTOX solutions in next-generation chemical risk assessment.

Take a few minutes to complete our survey and help shape the future of animal-free safety assessment!

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