Animal testing could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to this computer program

Animal testing is abhorred by many around the world for being totally unethical. Moreover, these tests are quite time-consuming, expensive and the results derived are often inaccurate.

Now a new computer system has been developed in the United States that offers an alternative approach and predicts the toxicity of chemicals more accurately than animal tests.

Called Read-Across-based Structure Activity Relationship, or “Rasar”, it uses artificial intelligence to analyze a database on chemical safety that contains the results of 800,000 tests on 10,000 different chemicals.

Rasar achieved 87% accuracy in predicting chemical toxicity, compared to 81% in animal tests.

Companies that produce chemical compounds would eventually be able to access Rasar, which will be made available to the public. When formulating something like a new pesticide, the manufacturer could pull up information about various chemicals without having to test them individually.

Read more here: https://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/computer-program-could-make-animal-testing-obsolete.html