Toxicology - What is Toxicology?

Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. It is the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning, especially the poisoning of people.

The relationship between dose and its effects on the exposed organism is of high significance in toxicology. The chief criterion regarding the toxicity of a chemical is the dose, i.e. the amount of exposure to the substance.

All substances are toxic under the right conditions. The term LD₅₀ refers to the dose of a toxic substance that kills 50 percent of a test population (typically rats or other surrogates when the test concerns human toxicity).

LD₅₀ estimations in animals are no longer required for regulatory submissions as a part of pre-clinical development package.

The conventional relationship (more exposure equals higher risk) has been challenged in the study of endocrine disruptors.

There are various specialized subdisciplines within the field of toxicology that concern diverse chemical and biological aspects of this area.

For example, toxicogenomics involves applying molecular profiling approaches to the study of toxicology.

Other areas include Aquatic toxicology, Chemical toxicology, Ecotoxicology, Environmental toxicology, Forensic toxicology, and Medical toxicology.

Chemical toxicology is a scientific discipline involving the study of structure and mechanism related to the toxic effects of chemical agents, and encompasses technology advances in research related to chemical aspects of toxicology.

Research in this area is strongly multidisciplinary, spanning computational chemistry and synthetic chemistry, proteomics and metabolomics, drug discovery, drug metabolism and mechanisms of action, bioinformatics, bioanalytical chemistry, chemical biology, and molecular epidemiology.