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 1990-1991

Asymmetric Liposomes as a Test for Drug Activity

Norman D. Weiner, PhD
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Weiner cites symmetry of lipids as a drawback of the liposome models of membranes used in testing membrane-active drugs. He proposes a liposome system with more realistic asymmetric lipids, and will test activity of local anesthetics and aminoglycosides - substances that exert their effect by an unknown manipulation of membrane lipids.