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

Proceedings for CAAT 20th Anniversary Symposium

Gillete's Program Project

Leon H. Bruner
The Gillette Company

The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) is an internationally recognized organization established in 1981 to promote the use of alternative methods which replace animals in toxicity testing, reduce their numbers, or refine in vivo tests to make them less painful. The Program Project concept developed by CAAT provides an opportunity for industry scientists to partner with academic researchers in the development of alternative methods. In 1998, The Gillette Company established with CAAT a Program Project for the development of new eye irritation test methods that would provide an assessment of recovery from chemical-induced eye injury. Through this Program Gillette funded three grant projects for three years. CAAT managed applicant recruitment, review of proposals, bi-annual meetings between Gillette and academic scientists, and administrative and technology transfer activities related to the grant program. Three excellent researchers participated in the program: James Jester, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas; Steven Wilson, M.D., Ophthalmology Department Chairperson at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Fu-Shin Yu, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Dr. Jester's group produced telomerase-transfected human corneal epithelial and keratocyte cell lines and used them to develop corneal constructs for testing the extent of injury from putative eye irritants in vitro. Dr. Wilson's colleagues have developed a reversible growth-regulated human corneal epithelial cell line that can be grown into a normal stratified corneal epithelial tissue that may be useful for in vitro toxicity testing. Dr. Yu's laboratory has developed novel bovine and porcine organ culture models with the potential to evaluate recovery from injury. These ex vivo models are considered ready for Phase I of pre-validation. These projects have provided new corneal cell lines, corneal organ culture models, and test methods that may ultimately be validated as alternatives to the Draize eye test. CAAT has been essential for the development and execution of this Program Project. The success of this grant program is the result of CAAT's excellent reputation and expertise in developing and managing the Program Project.