The ToxCast Estrogen Receptor Agonist Pathway Model

Method Description

The ToxCast estrogen receptor (ER) pathway model is a mathematical model that combines the results from 18 high-throughput screening (HTS) assays from the ToxCast and Tox21 research programs. The HTS assays measure ER binding, dimerization, chromatin binding, transcriptional activation and ER-dependent cell proliferation. The model uses activity patterns across the in vitro assays to predict whether a chemical is an ER agonist or antagonist, or is otherwise influencing the assays through a manner dependent on the physics and chemistry of the technology platform (“assay interference”). The output of the model provides an area under the curve (AUC) value for the potential of a chemical to cause ER agonism, normalized with respect to the positive control chemical, estradiol.