The development of a novel drug is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. While the discovery of hits from a high throughput screening (HTS) campaign is relatively successful, later compound development stages have a much higher attrition rate. In this context, toxicity evaluation is one of the most important aspects of drug development. In this symposium, we hope to give an overview of the basic aspects of in vitro toxicity testing. We will focus on oxidative stress and small molecule-induced liver injury, one of the main reasons for withdrawal of drugs from the market. This symposium aims at investigators who have no prior background in drug development and is intended to provide a forum where they can learn about early toxicity evaluation of small molecules from experts. We also hope that this symposium will start the discussion towards the development of a more standardized approach to in vitro toxicity testing.

The development of a novel drug is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. While the discovery of hits from a high throughput screening (HTS) campaign is relatively successful, later compound development stages have a much higher attrition rate. In this context, toxicity evaluation is one of the most important aspects of drug development. In this symposium, we hope to give an overview of the basic aspects of in vitro toxicity testing. We will focus on oxidative stress and small molecule-induced liver injury, one of the main reasons for withdrawal of drugs from the market. This symposium aims at investigators who have no prior background in drug development and is intended to provide a forum where they can learn about early toxicity evaluation of small molecules from experts. We also hope that this symposium will start the discussion towards the development of a more standardized approach to in vitro toxicity testing.

Robert Damoiseaux, Ph.D.
Director of the Molecular Shared Screening Resources (MSSR) at the California NanoSystems Institute of UCLA

The development of a novel drug is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. While the discovery of hits from a high throughput screening (HTS) campaign is relatively successful, later compound development stages have a much higher attrition rate. In this context, toxicity evaluation is one of the most important aspects of drug development. In this symposium, we hope to give an overview of the basic aspects of in vitro toxicity testing. We will focus on oxidative stress and small molecule-induced liver injury, one of the main reasons for withdrawal of drugs from the market. This symposium aims at investigators who have no prior background in drug development and is intended to provide a forum where they can learn about early toxicity evaluation of small molecules from experts. We also hope that this symposium will start the discussion towards the development of a more standardized approach to in vitro toxicity testing.

Jie Zhang
Statistician at the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics

The development of a novel drug is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. While the discovery of hits from a high throughput screening (HTS) campaign is relatively successful, later compound development stages have a much higher attrition rate. In this context, toxicity evaluation is one of the most important aspects of drug development. In this symposium, we hope to give an overview of the basic aspects of in vitro toxicity testing. We will focus on oxidative stress and small molecule-induced liver injury, one of the main reasons for withdrawal of drugs from the market. This symposium aims at investigators who have no prior background in drug development and is intended to provide a forum where they can learn about early toxicity evaluation of small molecules from experts. We also hope that this symposium will start the discussion towards the development of a more standardized approach to in vitro toxicity testing.

Jim Cali, Ph.D.
Research Director for the Division of Assay Design at Promega