Published: 23-03-2021 14:54 | Updated: 23-03-2021 14:57

New IMM report: Adverse Outcome Pathways – principles and applications

Authors: Anna Beronius, Penny Nymark and Emma Wincent

The Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework is gaining increased use as a tool in risk assessment and method development and provides a collaborative platform for researchers and professionals in different disciplines. AOPs enable systematic organization of existing mechanistic, toxicological and epidemiological data and knowledge and are used as tools for integrating and interpreting different types of data to draw conclusions about health risks posed by environmental factors. By describing critical key events in toxicological pathways leading to negative health effects, AOPs can for example be used as frameworks for developing novel animal-free toxicity test methods.

The purpose of this report is to introduce the principles of AOP methodology and to describe different applications of AOPs in research, method development and risk assessment. We provide some examples to illustrate how AOPs have been developed and applied in different research and regulatory contexts. A short summary in Swedish is provided.

Link to IMM report Adverse Outcome Pathways – principles and applications