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 TestSmart -- Endocrine Disruptors

Breakout Group III - In Vivo Imaging: Summary of discussion on Endocrine Disruption

Chair

Pamela Reilly Contag
Xenogen Corporation

Panel Members

Ysunobu Aoki
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Tomas Guilarte
Johns Hopkins University

Mark Tengowski
Pfizer

Summary

Five different imaging modalities were discussed:

  1. photography of organs in animals;
  2. confocal microscopy;
  3. PET and microSPECT;
  4. biophotonic imaging; and
  5. fMRI.

Consensus was reached as a panel and as a group that in vivo imaging modalities are currently advanced enough in both technologies and applications to significantly change the paradigm for animal use in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The expansion of these applications warrants the consideration for their inclusion in the process of screening and testing for potential endocrine disruptors. We believe that policy makers have made the introduction of new technologies into the process such an expensive barrier to cross that assistance from the industry standpoint is unlikely to occur at the level required to take advantage of this opportunity in the near term. As a group, our panel has outlined the areas in which in vivo imaging technologies may play a role, the criteria required for imaging technologies to be considered scientifically and near term applications.

How in vivo imaging technologies relate to the "3R's"

Applications of In Vivo Imaging Modalities to Endocrine Disruption