Nod for six non-animal tests
The Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) has approved six new alternative testing methods, reducing the need for drugs to be tested on animals.
The Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) has approved six new alternative testing methods, reducing the need for drugs to be tested on animals.
The new tests use cell cultures rather than animals to establish the toxicity of cancer drugs and identify contaminated drugs.
One test is designed to help establish the dosage of highly toxic drugs used in chemotherapy for cancer. It uses bone marrow culture from mice and cord blood cells from humans. The other five deal with bacterial contamination, using human immune cells grown in the laboratory, which can detect bacteria.