EDITORIAL SNPs and Chips: Genomic Data in Safety Evaluation

The biotechnology revolution is impacting all of the biological sciences, and toxicology is no exception. Perusal of the abstracts of the Society’s recent annual meetings confirms that our field is already actively using the powerful new tools of molecular biology to identify and understand the mechanisms of toxic responses. Thus, the Workshop on Toxicogenomics and Risk Assessment sponsored by the Society and discussed in this issue by Cunningham et al. was a timely undertaking. This was not the first workshop to focus on the application of genomic approaches to risk assessment, but it was unique in a number of respects. First, it brought together thought leaders with a wider breadth of thinking about the application of genomic and molecular technologies than have other workshops. The toxicology community has rightly focused much attention on the potential of array-based methods of monitoring gene transcription to provide “global monitoring ” of responses to toxic insults. Clearly, this is an exciting and important new technology, as was emphasized by several of the workshop speakers. However, other important aspects of genomic technologies were also brought out at this meeting. These include the advent of haplotype markers that will greatl