Scientists at EFSA and several top European research organisations teamed up to create “TKPlate”. It is an online platform that offers a space and a suite of tools for scientists and regulators to model and predict TK and TD properties.

Two senior scientists at EFSA – toxicologist Jean-Lou Dorne, and statistician/modeller Jose Cortiñas Abrahantes – are leading this work.

Jean-Lou: “The idea for TKPlate started in 2014 with a scientific report on alternative methods to animal testing that could be used by EFSA’s experts. The report proposed the development of a series of TK and TD models. Toxicokinetics tells us how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolises and excretes the chemical. Toxicodynamics explores the toxic effects on molecules, cells, tissues, organs or a whole organism A living thing such as humans, animals, plants and microbes (e.g. bacteria, viruses).”

Jose: “Between 2015 and 2020, EFSA developed these TK models and produced many case studies for a range of species A subdivision of the genus, a species is a group of closely related and similar-looking organisms; for example, in the case of Homo sapiens (humans), the second part of the name (sapiens) represents the species. relevant to EFSA’s work: humans, test animals like rats and mice, farm animals and other species that have a role in the food and feed chain such as earth worms. We contracted out to academic partners and national agencies important parts of the work, which have resulted in several successful doctorates by young scientists.”