Access to high-quality, curated data and computational tools is essential for evidence-based chemical safety assessment and for the development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). Yet finding trustworthy data and tools in one place is not always easy. If you work in toxicology, there is a free resource worth adding to your toolbox: the NIH Integrated Chemical Environment (NICE).
What is NICE?
NICE is developed by the National Toxicology Program’s Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM). It provides free access to curated chemical safety data and tools that support the development and evaluation of alternative testing approaches.
The user interface is designed so that anyone, including people with limited prior knowledge of chemical bioactivity testing, can explore a wide range of chemical testing data. The curated datasets are reviewed against specific quality standards to support chemical safety assessment.
What can you do with NICE?
NICE Search
Integrates data from different models and testing systems to give you an overview of chemical activity relevant to regulatory endpoints.
Chemical Quest
Identifies structurally similar chemicals using molecular fingerprints.
Open Chemical Quest | Tool guide
Curve Surfer
Lets you view and interact with concentration-response curves from chemical high-throughput screening (cHTS) data.
Open Curve Surfer | Tool guide
PBPK Tool
Generates predictions of tissue-specific chemical concentration profiles following a dosing event.
Open the PBPK Tool | Tool guide
IVIVE Tool
Extrapolates an equivalent daily in vivo exposure level from a chemical concentration that induces activity in an in vitro assay.
Open the IVIVE Tool | Tool guide
Chemical Characterization
Enables you to view and compare predicted physicochemical and ADME properties of chemical sets.
Open Chemical Characterization | Tool guide
Consumer Use Explorer
Provides consumer product-use information for chemical sets, using the US EPA’s Chemical and Products Database (CPDat).
Built for computational workflows too
Beyond the web interface, NICE supports programmatic access to its datasets through REST APIs, which makes it easier to integrate the data into your own computational workflows.
Why does it matter?
NICE helps researchers and risk assessors integrate available evidence, evaluate computational approaches, and support the development of scientifically sound alternatives to traditional testing methods. Having data exploration, structural similarity, concentration-response visualization, PBPK modeling, IVIVE, and exposure context under one roof makes the path from data to decision shorter and more transparent.
Who should explore it?
Whether you work in regulatory toxicology, computational toxicology, chemical risk assessment, or NAM development, NICE is worth exploring.
Get started
Have you already used NICE in your work? Share your experience with the TOXICOLOGIST community and tell us which tool you find most useful.
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