From drug identification to systems toxicology

Biomedical sciences are at the edge of an extraordinary transformation in the conduct of toxicological evaluations using modern biomolecular analysis techniques to elucidate mechanisms of toxicity. To this transformation have contributed the increasing power and availability of molecular measurement tools, the possibility of probing biological networks inside organisms, organs, tissues, and cells, the affordability of high-throughput characterization tools, and the availability of potent bioinformatic tools. The classical toxicant-by-toxicant approach, that has been applied to solve clinical and forensic toxicology challenges for decades, has now turned to a multidisciplinary approach. The application of the newest biomolecular measurements to the field of toxicology led to the emergence of new sub-disciplines, such as toxicogenetics, toxicoproteomics, and systems toxicology. The leading approaches are briefly reviewed, with a special focus on technological advances, the omics era, systems toxicology and the toxome.