Dr. Ruili Huang is the informatics group leader on the toxicity profiling team at the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). She also serves as a co-chair of the Tox21 chemical library working group. Dr. Huang and her group contribute to quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) data processing and interpretation and development and implementation of software tools and algorithms that facilitate NCATS’ data pipeline. As a computational toxicology team, Dr. Huang’s group evaluates qHTS assay performance for prioritization, analyzes compound in vitro toxicity profiling data to generate hypotheses on compound mechanisms of toxicity, and develops computational models for better prediction of in vivo toxicity. Additionally, her group integrates biological pathway information and qHTS assay data to support interpretation of results. Dr. Huang received her Ph.D. in chemistry from Iowa State University, trained as a computational biologist at the National Cancer Institute, and joined NCATS in 2006.
OpenTox Summer School 2024
Application of Tox21 data in target identification
The U.S. Tox21 program has screened a library of approximately 10,000 (10K) structurally diverse environmental chemicals and drugs against a battery of ~80 in vitro assays in a quantitative high throughput screening (qHTS) format, encompassing a wide range of targets and pathways related to toxicity. These datasets can aid in the identification of previously uncharacterized toxicants as well as the development of computational models for toxicity prediction. In addition, the assay targets significantly associated with certain classes of compounds can be used to provide insight into the mechanisms and pathways related to chemical-induced toxicity. In this session, the data process will be described that integrates signals from various assay readouts and counter screens to produce a final call on on-target compound activity. Example applications of the Tox21 in vitro assay data to identify chemical features and biological targets that contribute to chemical toxicity and mechanism of action will be discussed. Demonstration of a few detailed analysis methods will be given.