The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1984-1985

A Molecular Assay for Teratogens Using Amniotic Fluid Cells

Nicole Bournias-Vardiobasis, PhD
City of Hope Medical Center, Duarte, California

Nicole Bournias-Vardiabasis, PhD, and Raymond L. Teplitz, MD, of City of Hope Medical Center, Duarte, Calif., received a new grant to develop a quick, reliable prenatal test for birth defects caused by drugs and other environmental stresses.

Drs. Bournias-Vardiabasis and Teplitz are designing their test to examine cells shed by human fetus during pregnancy. The goal is to identify damage done by toxic agents at the molecular level and at the earliest stages of human development.

Cultured cells from fluid surrounding the fetus can be used for the prenatal detection of genetic disorders but have not been exploited widely for detecting developmental deformities. The scientists are exposing the cells to various toxic agents and stresses and examining the effects on various parts of the cells' protein makeup. What they find could form the basis for a standardized laboratory test for prenatal abnormalities and for chemicals that cause these effects.