The ActiTOX project delivers a novel approach to the safety testing of nanomaterials.
Currently, nanoparticles and new drugs are tested in a complex safety assessment before they are used in products. However, the standard preclinical testing methods used here have considerable disadvantages, both from an ethical (animal testing) and functional (high failure rate in clinical tests) point of view.
ActiTOX is responding to this problem by developing a novel cell-based test platform. This is based on human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), a powerful cell system that can differentiate into all tissue types and has been shown to recapitulate many properties of human cells and their response to drugs. hiPSCs are ethically safe and can be easily produced in large quantities from human donor cells, such as skin or blood cells.
By combining different cell models, which are applied to special biological carrier materials, and a fluidic system in which different cell types can be cultivated in individual compartments but linked to each other, ActiTOX creates a test platform for evaluating the uptake of nanoparticles/active substances in the body, their distribution in the organism and their metabolism and excretion.
ActiTOX aims to increase the relevance of in vitro studies by developing animal-free, more robust, physiology-based models and to provide a scalable approach for their use in drug development and toxicology screening.
In order to achieve the project goals, a training network enabling efficient short-term secondments of experienced and early-stage researchers between academia and industry will be established. The cooperation between stakeholders helps closing the gap between them and mediate innovation to foster the current state of the art. ActiTOX will mediate it via networking, research, training, workshop, innovation and dissemination actions. The project increases knowledge based economy and creates long lasting cooperation strengthening the European research area.
