ELECTRICAL APPROACH FOR IN VITRO TOXICOLOGY

出于经济和人文方面的考虑，人们越来越感兴趣 在化学品毒性试验中使用动物的替代品 探员们。组织培养有可能取代动物实验， 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进行挑战。对于这样的体外培养 然而，成功的方法是新的和敏感的方法来检测 细胞活动是必需的。 SBIR研究的长期目标是开发一种体外 基于一种创新的细胞行为测量的毒性分析 即ECIS(电池-衬底阻抗传感)。在第一阶段， 通过实验验证了该方法的可行性。 根据已确定的体内毒性对几种洗涤剂进行了排名。 第二阶段研究将扩展和完善这些测量和应用生物学 ECIS技术方面的物理专家将与Johns合作 霍普金斯大学卫生与公共卫生学院，毒理学和公共卫生专家 动物试验的替代方案。将制造新的硬件 将ECIS电极合并到多井排列中，以及新的软件 将被编写为提供收集和分析数据的算法。使用 这种专门的设计和积累的数据来自广泛的 毒物，将建立两个测试点进行最终测试和 在商业化之前对这一新方法进行评估。 拟议的商业应用：现在正在对化合物进行严格的测试 新能源开发中的普遍现象和主要经济考虑 药物、化妆品等。如果ECIS能被证明是有效的和 灵敏的体外毒理学方法，将有相当大的应用价值 商业潜力。它本质上是定量的，是计算机 接口，只需很少的劳动力即可获取和分析数据制作 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.