Based upon such mechanistic understanding of the cellular events, a tiered testing strategy for hepatic steatosis is proposed, encompassing amongst others non-target transcriptomics, targeted molecular-level screening via reporter gene assays (PPARγ, PXR, AhR, GR, LXR, Nrf2, ESRE, SRXN1, BIP), mitochondrial stress, cellular-level triglyceride accumulation in human hepatocyte cell lines (HepG2, HepaRG, and primary human hepatocytes), and supporting lines of evidence arising from relevant non-human models (e.g., histopathological alterations of liver in zebrafish embryos). The gene discussed is SRXN1; the disease is fatty liver disease.