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 1995-1996

Standardization and Simplification of an In Vitro Assay to Screen the Efficacy of Anti-Metastatic Agents

Margaret B. Penno, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

The third year grant is the final step in the development of an in vitro assay to measure tumor cell attachment to extracellular matrices. With the aid of a robotic workstation, Penno and colleagues will adapt the ceulllular attachment assay so that 96 samples (tumor cells with or without inhibitors) can be tested for attachment simultaneously. The automated method will be compared and contrasted to the manual method developed over the past two years. A cost analysis of mass drug screening using the automated system will also be performed. This study has been designed to develop a rapid and accurate in vitro test for the identification of anti-metastatic agents and provide investigators with an alternative to animal testing. The assay will also facilitate the quantitative measurements of cellular attachment involving numerous other cell adhesion molecules involved in cancer, viral infection and inflammatory disease.