ELECTRICAL APPROACH FOR IN VITRO TOXICOLOGY

出于经济和人道的考虑， 在化学品毒性试验中使用动物的替代方法 剂. 组织培养有可能取代动物试验， 因为，至少在原则上，培养的细胞会对 以类似于整个有机体的方式挑战。 对于此类体外 然而，新的和敏感的方法来检测 需要细胞活动。 SBIR研究的长期目标是开发一种体外 基于创新的细胞行为测量的毒性测定， ECIS（electric cell-substrate impedance sensing）。 在第一阶段， 实验证明了该方法的可行性 根据其确定的体内毒性对几种洗涤剂进行了排名。 第二阶段的研究将扩展和完善这些测量和应用生物技术。 ECIS技术的物理专家将与约翰斯合作， 霍普金斯卫生与公共卫生学院的毒理学专家和 动物实验的替代品 新的硬件将被制造 将ECIS电极纳入多孔排列， 将被写入提供算法来收集和分析数据。 与 这种专门的设计和积累的数据， 有毒物质，将建立两个beta测试点进行最终测试， 在商业化之前对这种新方法进行评估。 拟议的商业应用：严格的化合物测试， 这是一个普遍现象，也是发展新能源的一个主要经济考虑因素。 如果ECIS可以被证明是一种有效的， 敏感的方法在体外毒理学，它将有相当大的 商业潜力。 它本质上是定量的，并且是计算机的 接口，需要很少的劳动力来获得和分析数据制作 这种方法不仅精确，而且非常具有成本效益。

For both economic and humane considerations there has been growing interest in alternatives to the use of animals in toxicity testing of chemical agents. Tissue culture has the potential to replace animal testing, because, at least in principle, the cultured cells will respond to challenges in ways similar tot he whole organism. For such in vitro approaches to be successful, however, new and sensitive methods to detect cellular activities are required. The long range objective of the SBIR research is to develop an in vitro toxicity assay based on an innovative cell behavior measurement referred to as ECIS (electric cell-substrate impedance sensing). In phase I the feasibility of this approach was demonstrated as experiments correctly ranked several detergents according to their established in vivo toxicity. Phase II studies will extend and refine these measurements and Applied Bio Physics, experts in the ECIS technology, will collaborate with Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, experts in toxicology and alternatives to animal testing. New hardware will be fabricated incorporating ECIS electrodes in a multiwell arrangement, and new software will be written to provide algorithms to collect and analyze data. With this specialized design and the accumulated data from a wide range of toxicants, two beta test sites will be established for final testing and evaluation of this new approach prior to commercialization. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Rigorous testing of compounds is now commonplace and a major economic consideration in the development of new drug, cosmetics, etc. If ECIS can be demonstrated to be an effective and sensitive method for in vitro toxicology, it will have considerable commercial potential. It is by nature quantitative and being computer interfaced, requires very little labor to obtain and analyze data making this approach not only precise but very cost effective.