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PLEASE SAVE THE DATE: September 20, 10:00 AM when ASCCT will present a webinar which will be a first look at the Effectopedia: The Online Encyclopedia of Adverse Effect Pathways. Effectopedia was conceived by the International QSAR Foundation of Duluth, MN to gather and make available sources and information on what have come to be known as Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs). An AOP is a description of the known linkages between molecular initiation and adverse manifestation at the organism or even population level. It is similar to, but more comprehensive than, the concept of the "toxicity pathway" described in the National Academy of Sciences report "Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and Strategy."

Effectopedia is becoming recognized as one of the key tools necessary to implement a transition to "21st Century Toxicity". It is an open knowledge aggregation and collaboration tool that provides a means of describing adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) in an encyclopedic manner. Effectopedia is currently in the development stage, and IQF expects a first public release in April 2012. Effectopedia will be entirely open to the public and is intended to be populated by both targeted grants and voluntary contributions by the scientific community. Effectopedia has two main interfaces. The user interface provides Wiki-like search engine-optimized articles of the AOPs in a relational manner. For each AOP, there is a major overview wiki article linked to in-depth descriptions of the biological response sequences that link a chemical-induced molecular effect to the adverse outcomes needed for safety assessment. Effectopedia will also provide threshold values or dose-response linkages between intermediate biological effects and assessment endpoints.

The contributer interface of Effectopedia supplies tools for editing the content, building AOPs, and participating in discussions - one of the more important aspects for building new social networks among specialists. Please feel free to inform your colleagues about the event, and suggest they join the ASCCT in order to participate in and help support programs like this.