This perspective paper, which is the result of a collaborative effort between toxicologists and scholars in innovation and transition studies, presents a heuristic framework based on innovation system literature for understanding and appraising mission achievement to animal-free chemical safety assessment using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). While scientific and technical challenges in this area are relatively well known,...

The effect of MHC polymorphism on individual fitness variation in the wild remains equivocal; however, much evidence suggests that heterozygote advantage is a major determinant. To understand the contribution of MHC polymorphism to individual disease resistance or susceptibility in natural populations, we investigated two MHC class II B loci, DQB and DRB , in the New Zealand sea lion ( NZSL , Phocarctos hookeri ). The NZSL is...

Human‐induced changes to natural systems can cause major disturbances to fundamental ecological and population processes and result in local extinctions and secondary contacts between formerly isolated species. Extensive fur seal harvesting during the nineteenth century on Macquarie Island (subantarctic) resulted in extinction of the original population. Recolonization by three species has been slow and complex, characterized...