The Korea Institute of Toxicology (KIT)

Korea Institute of Toxicology (KIT) is affiliated with National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) which is under the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) in South Korea. It was founded to contribute to the public health and welfare enhancement by safety assessments of chemical and biological materials such as medicines, pesticides, food additives, and cosmetics, by research developments of related technologies, and by the provision of non-clinical assessment services. KIT’s GLP system has been certified by Korean and international regulatory authorities based on OECD and US FDA GLP criteria.

Department of Predictive Toxicology at KIT aims to develop new approach methodologies (NAMs) based on in vitro and in silico methods. KIT have participated in OpenRiskNet and Gov4Nano (Horizon 2020), developing nanotoxicity database and nano-QSAR models (OpenRiskNet services: https://openrisknet.org/e-infrastructure/services/ & NanoToxRadar: https://www.kitox.re.kr/nanotoxradar/). Currently, QSAR models developed by KIT are publicly available for research communities (Hepatotoxicity prediction for drug-like molecules: https://www.kitox.re.kr/toxstar/ & Blood-Brain Barrier penetration prediction for biocide: https://www.kitox.re.kr/toxbbb/).

Role in the project

KIT's contribution is mainly in WP 2 for in vivo toxicological studies to examine human safety of the advanced nanomaterials. KIT has also developed novel representation for advanced nanomaterials, which is expected to benefit nano-QSAR model development for advanced nanomaterials (WP3). As a part of WP7 activity, KIT contributes to desseminate SUNSHINIE results to stakeholdders from industry, regulation, and academia in Asia.