Exploring ToxCast Data

• Download ToxCast Data
• Using ToxCast Data
• Citations

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The US EPA Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast) program is a world leader in providing an accessible data resource with bioactivity data for toxicology. ToxCast assays come from many sources, including external contracts, cooperative agreements, and internal research laboratories. These assays evaluate chemical effects on many biological processes, such as mitochondrial, developmental, neurological, and cell cycle function, as well as targets such as nuclear receptors, enzymes, transcriptional expression, etc. The ToxCast program takes heterogeneous assay data and computationally processes them into a singular resource that supports chemical evaluations, user interfaces such as the CompTox Chemicals Dashboard, and research applications inside and outside of EPA. 

This page provides links to all relevant ToxCast data. The most recent ToxCast data is available in the invitrodb v4.2 database. The database was released in September 2024.  Data files from previously published ToxCast data releases are still available for download.

Download ToxCast Data

• Most Recent ToxCast Database Release (invitrodb v4.2) and Associated Software: The ToxCast Data Analysis Pipeline R package (tcpl) processes, models, and visualizes ToxCast concentration-response data and populates a linked MySQL Database, invitrodb. The tcpl R package enables flexible data processing and analysis. Additionally, tcpl employs EPA-maintained R dependency packages: tcplFit2 as its curve fitting utility and ctxR for API integration. The database release includes a MySQL database, release notes, summary files, assay information and concentration response plots. tcpl and invitrodb provide a standard for consistent and reproducible curve-fitting and data management for diverse, targeted in vitro assay data with readily available documentation, thus enabling sharing and use of these data in myriad toxicology applications.

  

  • Download Database Package
  • Summary files are provided here for convenience but see full database package for additional materials:
    • Download Assay Annotations 
    • Download Assay Gene Mappings 
    • Download Cytotoxicity Burst Output
  • Download the tcpl R Package:
    • GitHub
    • CRAN
  • Download the tcplfit2 R Package: 
    • GitHub
    • CRAN 
  • Download the ctxR R Package: 
    • GitHub 
    • CRAN 

• ToxCast Assay Description Documentation: This documentation for the ToxCast assay endpoints is in a format outlined by the OECD Guidance Document 211 (GD211) for describing non-guideline in vitro test methods and their interpretation. The intent of GD211 is to harmonize non-guideline, in vitro method descriptions to allow assessment of the relevance of the test method for biological responses of interest and the quality of the data produced. These reports are a work in progress and will be iteratively updated as more information becomes available.     
  • Download Full Assay Description Document
  • Download Assay Description Documents by Endpoint 
  • Standard Laboratory Protocol for Tox21 Assays 
• ToxCast Estrogen Receptor (ER) Pathway Model:  See (Judson et al., 2015)  
  • Download Data 
  • Performance Summary for Estrogen Receptor and Androgen Receptor Pathway Models and Associated Assays 
• ToxCast Androgen Receptor (AR) Pathway Model: See (Judson et al., 2015) and (Kleinstreuer et al., 2017)
  • Download Data 
  • Performance Summary for Estrogen Receptor and Androgen Receptor Pathway Models and Associated Assays 
• Archive of ToxCast & Tox21 Chemicals Distributed Structure-Searchable Toxicity Database (DSSTox Files): Chemical lists and information for 9,403 unique substances (DTXSIDs) and DSSTox standard chemical fields (chemical name; CASRN; structure; etc.). These chemicals have been evaluated through the ToxCast and Tox21 high-throughput screening efforts.
  • ToxCast Chemicals: Data Management and Quality Considerations Overview
    • Download ToxCast Chemical Information
    • Download ReadMe
• Previous ToxCast Data Releases: Data files from previously published ToxCast data releases. We DO NOT recommend using this data for new analyses, but are providing these files in case users need them for ongoing analyses.
  • Download Previously Published ToxCast Data

Using ToxCast Data

• Data downloads allow users to set up their own personal instance of the invitrodb MySQL database and interact with the data directly via the tcpl R package. This is a preferred option for more customized ToxCast data needs, or if users want to do their own data processing. See tcpl vignettes for more information.   

• CTX Bioactivity API allows users to programmatically access ToxCast data for various use cases, including research and applications with user interfaces. 

• The CompTox Chemicals Dashboard ToxCast bioactivity module presents a view of potency and relative efficacy metrics across ToxCast endpoints for chemicals of interest. 

Citing ToxCast Data

The following citation format can be used when citing ToxCast data:

General Citation Suggestion

U.S. EPA. Data download year. Data set name from database version. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/toxicity-forecaster-toxcasttm-data on date retrieved. Data release date.

Example Citation

U.S. EPA. 2015. ToxCast & Tox21 Summary Files from invitrodb_v3. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/toxicity-forecaster-toxcasttm-data on October 28, 2018. Data released October 2018.