Toxicity testing entered the twenty-first century last week at the US National Institutes of Health.

NIH scientists are looking to trade up from traditional labor-intensive and costly animal testing with the help of new robots unveiled last Thursday that can more rapidly evaluate the safety chemicals in human cultured cells. The robot — which looks like it’s dancing with its arms — has about four times the testing capacity as its predecessor.

The project, called Tox21, is a collaboration between the National
 Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Human Genome Research Institute, the
 Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

The Tox21 team is currently screening a set of 10,000 chemicals found in consumer and industrial products, food additives and medicines. The researchers hope to the robot can speed toxicity testing that can take years into a matter of weeks.

“We will be able to more quickly provide information about potentially
 dangerous substances to health and regulatory decision makers, and 
others, so they can make informed decisions to protect public health,” said Linda Birnbaum, director of NIEHS’ National Toxicology Program, in a press release.

Watch the robot in action.