Significant advances have been made in the application of predictive toxicology to elucidate adverse human health outcomes associated with chemical, physical or biological exposures. A key element in understanding the consequences of exposure is the cellular and subcellular mechanism of action. Emerging functional genomics methods including transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics supported by advances in computational modeling and molecular informatics have gained increasing acceptance as powerful tools to uncover underlying mechanism of action and to predict toxicity outcomes (Marzo etal., 2016, Moon and Cong, 2016, Sutherland etal., 2017). With careful study design and adequate bioinformatics, the resulting data-rich environments can be improved through contextual, exploratory, or network-building analyses. When integrated with existing toxicological methods, functional genomics clearly provides a more comprehensive understanding of the biochemical reactions controlling adverse reactions to environmental agents and pharmaceuticals.
