Simulations Plus Inc. has announced the extension of a research collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support ongoing federal research efforts focused on the development of new approach methodologies (NAMs) and advancing computational approaches for food chemical safety assessments.

Recent guidance from FDA and other regulatory agencies encourages the use of non-animal-based research, including in silico, mechanistic, and data-driven methods intended to support food and chemical safety evaluations. The newly extended collaboration with FDA aligns with these broader federal initiatives by supporting research into the application, evaluation, and refinement of computational toxicity models.

The extended agreement with FDA’s Human Foods Program allows scientists to continue research involving computational models to support chemical safety assessments for food and food-contact substances.

Following the completion of earlier project objectives, FDA elected to extend the collaboration with Simulations Plus to further expand and refine AI-based safety models for use in regulatory research. New federal funding dedicated to food chemical safety modernization will provide this collaboration with expanded access to curated toxicological datasets for further training, validation, and benchmarking of Simulations Plus’ artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) models.