U.S.-Korean toxicology partnerships launched.

As part of an initiative to build close working ties with international toxicology authorities, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) signed an exchange of letters with Korea's counterpart agency, also called the NTP, on 16 June 2003. The main goals of the partnership, which was spearheaded by U.S. NTP associate director Christopher Portier, are to help the Korean NTP build expertise in toxicologic methods and tao exchange data.

Other proposed priorities for the partnership include developing carcinogenicity assays, jointly conducting public reviews of technical data, and training Korean scientists in four areas: basic mechanisms of carcinogenesis, carcinogenic agents and the risk factors associated with them, genetic susceptibility, and statistical methods for data analysis.

The Korean NTP was formed last year within that nation's National Institute of Toxicological Research. The 15-year-old institute is part of the Korean Food and Drug Administration.

Korean NTP director Ki-Hwa Yang says the background of the program's 51 scientists is mainly in pharmacology and veterinary science. Korean scientists are eager to strengthen their knowledge of toxicological and testing protocols, he says, and are looking to model their program on the U.S. NTP blueprint and to incorporate the U.S. style into the technical reports they are planning to produce. A Korean toxicologist is already at the NIEHS for a three-month observation of the workings of the NIEHS/NTP, and plans are under way to bring over a Korean chemist as well.

Yang says one of the first focuses of the collaborative effort will be the study of botanically based medicines. He says botanicals are widely used in Korea, and little scientific research on their chemical properties and interactions with other pharmaceuticals has been performed there to date. Similar efforts are already under way in the United States, including NTP-funded studies on ginkgo, echinacea, ginseng, kava kava, and the plant compounds pulegone and thujone.

Portier is working to build similar links with Japan and Australia. Chris Schonwalder, senior environmental health advisor to the director of the John E. Fogarty International Center, says of this initiative, "Any and all things that we can do to assist ... countries in increasing their scientific base for environmental policy should be encouraged. Not only is this good foreign policy, but it also leads to better scientific collaboration and new knowledge and understanding of human health risks."