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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for regulating products Americans use every day. From your toothbrush and moisturizer to your morning coffee, and the food you buy your pet, to your annual flu shot, the FDA regulates or oversees them all. To ensure the safety of these products, which account for about 20 cents of every dollar spent by U.S. consumers, the FDA’s decisions must be based on sound regulatory science.
Regulatory science research enables the FDA to understand and assess risk and helps ensure the safety—or reduce the harm—of the products it regulates. In 1971, President Nixon established the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), now part of the FDA Office of the Chief Scientist, in Arkansas as the sole research center for the FDA. This year the center is celebrating 50 years of scientific achievements including the groundbreaking research we have done—and continue to do—in support of the FDA’s regulatory centers.
Our research provides data to identify how agents interact with the body to cause toxicity, which lead to guidances for industry and help us better understand the biochemical reactions to cancer-causing substances, for example. Most recently, NCTR scientists developed a method to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 in wastewater, yielding important data to support the COVID-19 response. Because individuals shed the virus in their feces, wastewater surveillance warns of its increased circulation in a community. This complements individual testing to give a faster snapshot of viral spread in a population.
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