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 1991-1992

Development of an In Vitro Hippocampal Brain Slice Screen for Neurotoxicity

Stephen B. Fountain, PhD
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

Dr. Fountain's goal is to develop and validate an in vitro brain slice screen for neurotoxicity. The slice will be taken from the hippocampal area of the rat brain, a domain that controls learning, memory and other behavioral processes. Thus, multiple tests of a variety of neuronal properties may be administered in a single slice. The results of his work may prove the Hippocampal Slice Screen (HSS) as a sensitive, rapid, and economic general assay system for neurotoxicity.