Patent ID: 8497089

Claim:
An in vitro method to predict the effect of an exogenous element on an animal or human organism comprising: a) labelling at least one organelle contained in animal or human isolated cells; b) contacting said isolated cells containing said at least one labelled organelle with said exogenous element; c) measuring variations of organelle behaviour in said isolated cells represented by four characteristics of said at least one labelled organelle in the presence of said exogenous element, said four characteristics being motility, morphology, relationship with the cell cytoskeleton and membrane permeability, the variations of at least two of these characteristics being determined in three spatial dimensions; and d) determining cluster membership of said exogenous element, clusters being established using reference elements and being based on all variations recorded in step c), said cluster membership being representative of the effect of said exogenous element on said organism, thereby predicting the effect of said exogenous element on said animal or human organism.