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

Intelligent Culture Dishes for Toxicity Testing

Norman F. Sheppard, Jr., PhD
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

The aim of this project is to improve the efficacy of cytotoxicity testing by developing a system for monitoring cellular metabolism in vitro. This system will be used with mammalian cell models to test the hypothesis that knowledge of the culture medium chemistry will provide greater insight into the processes underlying cytotoxicity. The specific aims for the second year of the project are to establish a correlation between rates of consumption of metabolites such as glucose and amino acids, and/or production of metabolic products such as lactate in existing in vitro assays and to design and construct a multi-well culture plate with integral biosensors, using transparent substrate and electrode materials and associated instrumentation.