Development and evaluation of a new method for testing the toxic effects of natural and synthetic chemicals using human cell lines. X.F. Luo, E.M. Nicholls, and Assoc. Prof. Chris Winder. The aims of the research in the Chemical Safety and Applied Toxicology Laboratories are to develop scientifically acceptable alternative approaches for the safety assessment of chemical hazards. To develop a simple, reliable, sensitive and inexpensive test for the study of chemicals on cells.
Preliminary works indicates that such an assay is plausible and easy to perform.
To validate the test with the results of more traditional toxicity measurements. Preliminary results with a small number of chemicals indicates that a high correlation exists. To commercialise above developments to provide funds for further research in toxicology. Chemical effects on blood leukocytes have been observed in cell culture for many years. In situ hybridisation techniques developed in our laboratories have enabled us to use cDNA probes for cytokine mRNAs to study the production of the cytokines following different chemical treatments.