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Unilever

Challenge

U.K.-based Unilever’s Environmental Safety Laboratory is a state–of–the–art toxicology facility that approves the safety of numerous new and proposed products each year. Streamlining this process is an ongoing priority. A second goal is to develop inventive techniques that help reduce the need for animal testing.

Solution

With PASW Modeler’s neural networking models, Unilever created an innovative approach to testing new products for corrosivity. What’s more, this approach–which proved to be easier, more powerful and more reliable than previous methods–can be extended to assess additional toxicological properties.

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Results

With PASW Modeler and this new process, Unilever is leading the way torward in computero research, and away from in vivo and in vitro experimentation.

Saved significant time and money in product development life cycles

Predicting the effects of potentially corrosive substances on skin is an extremely complex process. Unilever must consider molecule size, as smaller molecules can penetrate the skin and cause damage, and the nature of the substance, because large molecules can irritate and erode the surface of the skin. Toxicologists rely on known classifications of substances, categorized as either “corrosive” or “non-corrosive.” However, these classifications don’t consider varying degrees of corrosivity, which can make borderline cases unclear. In addition, some skin is simply more sensitive, and classifications are always subjective to some extent.

With PASW Modeler’s rapid modeling environment for data mining, Unilever modeled the corrosivity of organic acids, bases and phenols, critical ingredients in many new products. Then putting PASW Modeler’s neural network models to work, Unilever trained the models to judge corrosivity based on several descriptive attributes. PASW Modeler enabled Unilever to go beyond the limited “corrosive” or “non-corrosive” categories previously established. Since the most strongly corrosive or non-corrosive substances quickly gravitated to their respective extremes, and the substances in between were scored to reveal a gradation of corrosivity, Unilever was able to create a more complete way to test for corrosive substances in new products.

Minimized the need for animal testing

With PASW Modeler and this new process, Unilever is leading the way toward in computero research, and away from in vivo and in vitro experimentation. The result? Unilever reduces costs and product development cycles, as well as minimizes the need for animal testing.