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 2008-2009

An Invertebrate Model for Animal Behavioral Screening

Aaron Wheeler
University of Toronto

A new technology has recently become commercially available: automated, multiplexed behavioral analysis platforms. These systems facilitate the identification (via digital video and automated image analysis) of rat or mouse behaviors that are associated with neurological diseases. This development has led experts to predict a significant increase in the use of mammalian subjects for behavioral testing in drug discovery and other applications. A potential solution to the ethical and resource issues associated with this trend is the replacement of mammals with simple invertebrates such as Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1 mm-long, 959-cell, soil-dwelling nematode. We propose to test whether a combination of microfluidic mazes and C. elegans behavioral assays can be useful as a replacement for mammalian animal models. If successful, this could lead to a reduction in the use of mammals in applied and basic behavioral research, which would support the central aim of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT).