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 1987-1988

An In Vitro Neuronal Culture Model to Study the Effects of Irritant and Inflammatory Chemicals

T.K. Baumann, PhD and R.H. LaMotte, PhD
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Baumann and LaMotte will develop an in vitro system, more powerful than methods in current use, to measure the effects of irritants and inflammatory chemicals on sensory neurons. Recently, scientists have shown that parts of certain nerve cells respond similarly in culture and animals. The in vitro system worked on by Baumann and LaMotte would reduce the number of animals in such research and their discomfort, provide data on how chemicals affect nerve cells and replace animal methods of screening irritants, such as the Draize test.