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 1986-1987

Determination of Photosensitivity by an In Vitro Assay as an Alternative to Animal Testing

Irene E. Kochevar, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Kochevar and her associates have used CAAT funding to develop an assay for determining whether certain chemicals are phototoxic, that is, whether they make human cells more susceptible to damage from sunlight. She now proposes to use the assay as a research tool to help scientists better understand phototoxicity. She also will attempt to develop the assay into a test that can replace animal and human testing of pharmaceuticals suspected of being phototoxic to skin.