The Alberta Centre for Toxicology (ACFT) and ACEA Biosciences will jointly develop an in vitro cytotoxicity-based human-health risk-assessment system using ACEA's cell-electronic array technology.
The partnership will create cell-based toxicity profiles of priority contaminants commonly found in the environment.
The Xcelligence System - invented by ACEA, co-developed by ACEA and Roche and marketed by Roche Applied Science - is a cell substrate impedance measurement-based instrumentation and software that integrates micro electronics and cell biology.
Among many other biomedical research applications, it is suited for toxicology uses because it can dynamically monitor cell growth/death in cultures exposed to environmental chemicals.
The pattern of cell growth/death can provide important mechanistic information about the contaminants.
Other such parameters as the inhibitory concentration can also be measured and, together with existing information about the chemicals, can be used to develop an integrated health risk-assessment model.
Toxicity testing is rapidly changing due to the quest to replace animal experimentation with alternative methods such as the in vitro assays based on the Xcelligence System.
