The rapidly developing field of toxicology is concerned with the harmful effects of chemical, physical, and biological agents on living organisms, and humans in particular. The research covers occupational and environmental toxicology testing, product safety evaluation, and development of biologically based tests for measuring the endpoints for exposure to toxicants and other damaging agents.

Major advances at the cutting edge of applied molecular and cellular biology are underway in development of non-animal in vitro (cells in culture) methods. The reduction or replacement of animal based tests is a major change in the way new products are being developed and commercialised by industry.

Some recent successes in the School have been the development of cytotoxicity tests to measure the toxicity of soils and ground water at contaminated sites, measurement of the bioactivity of plant extracts, development of molecular and cellular techniques to measure UV light induced damage in skin cells, and in vitro cytotoxicity assessment of different tests to measure the toxicity of industrial chemicals and chemical mixtures.