Institute For In Vitro Sciences Inc

Education and outreach: iivs participates in numerous training activities for a variety of stakeholders including industry and regulatory scientists. These trainings are tailored for the specific audience and generally include lectures, hands-on demonstrations and data interpretation. Two major programs in which iivs participates are the physicians committee for responsible medicine nura training and the animal free safety assessment collaboration coordinated by humane society international. Iivs scientists were invited to participate in expert panels convened by the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd) which harmonizes in vitro testing approaches for the worldwide scientific community. These panels discussed new methods for genetic toxicology, skin sensitization, eye irritation and skin corrosion. Iivs is leading efforts with industry consortia and 2 divisions of the us federal drug administration to apply non-animal methods for specific endpoints. Iivs is also involved in efforts to support the us environmental protection agency's goal to reduce reliance on animal models. Iivs staff hold board positions within societies that have the mission to work collaboratively to increase the use and acceptance of alternative methods, such as the american society for cellular and computational toxicology, the european society for toxicology in vitro, the us society of toxicology and the chinese society of toxicology.