SaferWorldbyDesign: NAMASTOX, a computational tool supporting the use of workflows for NGRA

The adoption of New Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) for replacing in vivo methods is often hampered by the complexity of their application. Frequently, using NGRA requires carrying out multiple New Approach Methods (NAMs) in an orderly manner, collecting the results obtained, and documenting the course of the study, including a detailed justification of all the decisions taken. NAMASTOX is a computational tool designed to support the use of NGRA in different ways. First, it can guide the user in the application step-by-step of ASPA, a workflow developed by the APS consortium for applying NGRA. Second, it supports the comprehensive collection of NAM results and the justification of every decision made. All this data can be used to generate a standardized report. Finally, NAMASTOX can be linked to online or locally accessible in-silico methods, facilitating their automatic application in the study and collecting the results. Our tool provides an online interface and can be easily deployed to corporate servers or even desktop computers, guaranteeing the complete confidentiality of the data while supporting collaborative use.

Manuel Pastor leads the Pharmacoinformatics laboratory (PhI) at the Research Group on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB), University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. MP obtained his PhD at the University of Alcalá, Spain, in 1989. He spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Perugia (Italy) under the supervision of Gabriele Cruciani. Later, he worked at Perugia for three more years as a software developer and scientific responsible for Multivariate Informetric Analysis Srl. In 2000, MP moved to Barcelona, where he obtained a position as an Assistant professor at the University Pompeu Fabra. The PhI laboratory has a long research tradition in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry. MP has participated as principal investigator in numerous EU projects, mainly related to developing and applying computational methods for drug development and, lately, using machine learning for chemical safety assessment. Author of more than 100 articles and book chapters in indexed research journals. Leading developer of commercial and open-source software widely used in the pharmaceutical industry (GOLPE, VolSurf, Almond, Pentacle, SHOP, Flame)

Speaker: Manuel Pastor (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)