25th anniversary of the Berlin Workshop on Developmental Toxicology: DevTox database update, challenges in risk assessment of developmental neurotoxicity and alternative methodologies in bone development and growth

25 years after the first Berlin Workshop on Developmental Toxicity this 10th Berlin Workshop aimed to bring together international experts from authorities, academia and industry to consider scientific, methodologic and regulatory aspects in risk assessment of developmental toxicity and to debate alternative strategies in testing developmental effects in the future.

Proposals for improvement of the categorization of developmental effects were discussed as well as the update of the DevTox database as valuable tool for harmonization. The development of adverse outcome pathways relevant to developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) was debated as a fundamental improvement to guide the screening and testing for DNT using alternatives to animal methods.

A further focus was the implementation of an in vitro mechanism-based battery, which can support various regulatory applications associated with the assessment of chemicals and mixtures. More interdisciplinary and translation research should be initiated to accelerate the development of new technologies to test developmental toxicity.

Technologies in the pipeline are (i) high throughput imaging techniques, (ii) models for DNT screening tests, (iii) use of computer tomography for assessment of thoracolumbar supernumerary ribs in animal models, and (iv) 3D biofabrication of bone development and regeneration tissue models. In addition, increased collaboration with the medical community was suggested to improve the relevance of test results to humans and identify more clinically relevant endpoints.

Finally, the participants agreed that this conference facilitated better understanding innovative approaches that can be useful for the identification of developmental health risks due to exposure to chemical substances.