| NCTR Centers of Excellence | Center for Phototoxicology |  National Toxicology Program |

Future Direction
 

Phototoxicology Studies

The NCTR Center for Phototoxicology / NTP Center for Phototoxicology (NCP) was created to meet the phototoxicology and photocarcinogenesis research and testing needs of both the FDA and the NTP. In this leadership role, the NCP will continue to provide important scientific information needed for risk assessment and risk management decisions. In addition, the NCP will be a resource for other federal research and regulatory agencies thereby providing guidance and giving advice on issues involving photo-irradiation and phototoxicology (e.g., potential risk from chemical and UV exposure; design and execution of phototoxicology studies, etc.).

FDA Mission and NTP Vision/Roadmap Support

The NCP is located at the FDA's National Center for Toxicology Research (NCTR). FDA’s primary mission is to promote and protect the health of the American public and NCTR supports that mission by providing high quality scientific data to FDA’s regulatory product centers. As the NTP and its partners implement the NTP Roadmap to achieve the NTP vision’s for the 21st century (http://www.ntp.gov), the NCP will support the NTP Roadmap by developing and applying new mechanistic toxicology tools by which to identify biomarkers predictive of toxic or carcinogenic events prior to the phenotypic expression of those events. Creating, validating and understanding how this new type of scientific information can be used in regulatory decision making will be a priority for the NCP.

Evolution of Phototoxicology

There are many aspects of phototoxicology and photocarcinogenesis where new advances in biochemical techniques can enhance the information gained from a study, or result in a change in study design. As an example, the NCP is examining the utility of digital photography in documenting clinical observations in the test animals and as an instrument for measuring skin changes. Another example is examination of genomic changes as predictive biomarkers for skin cancer development. In addition, the NCP is currently evaluating various statistical methods by which tumor multiplicity can be factored into result interpretation and also developing computer modeling programs which predict skin tumor growth and growth patterns. The NCP will continue to provide leadership by advancing the science of phototoxicology.