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Content archived on 2024-06-16

Development of a toxin screening multi-parameter on-line biochip system

Objective

Tissue culture of cell lines has the potential to replace animal testing, but for such in-vitro approaches to be successful, new and sensitive methods to detect cellular activities are required. ToxiChip will focus on both the development and promotion of alternative in-vitro testing methods for the monitoring of a vast array of toxins, thus alleviating the current demand for animal sacrifice while also permitting high throughput screening. The primary objective is to develop a eukaryote cell based biochip that will be tailored for dual analysis capability (optical and electrochemical) and will be used as a monitoring tool for examining the effects of toxins on a wide range of cell parameters such as, impedance, changes in morphology, distribution and pH.

This technology will help to provide an in-depth knowledge of the various cellular responses that occur as a result of toxicity and will have major beneficial implications in such applications as neurology, cytotoxicity and pharmacology. For example in monitoring the overall toxic effects of not only individual chemicals but also combinations of these chemicals in areas such as environmental analysis of wastewater and in drug development. Another objective of this project is to develop a prokaryote based biochip, solely used for detection of toxins using optical analysis only.

A panel of genetically engineered bacterial strains that sensitively report on the presence of toxins that normally affect eukaryotic cells, thus eliminating the need to sacrifice animals for experimentation will be developed. In the envisaged system, these bacteria that are immobilised on the prokaryote cell based biochip, will emit a readily measurable signal (fluorescence, bioluminescence, electrochemical etc.) in the presence of different sets of toxins. The developed technology can be adapted to meet the requirements of other potential commercial exploits, in areas such as the pharmaceutical, environmental, health and security sectors.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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STREP - Specific Targeted Research Project

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK
EU contribution
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Address
WESTERN ROAD
CORK
Ireland

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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Participants (7)

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