Drug-induced phospholipidosis (DIPL) is a metabolic disorder characterized by an excessive intracellular accumulation of phospholipids caused by cationic drugs. Hepatic cells derived from human skin are evaluated as an in vitro model to investigate DIPL and its mechanisms. Human skin stem cells

Last updated on: 20-02-2024 - 11:27

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
Adverse outcome pathway (AOP) networks are versatile tools in toxicology and risk assessment that capture and visualize mechanisms driving toxicity originating from various data sources. They share a common structure consisting of a set of molecular initiating events and key events, connected by key

Last updated on: 20-02-2024 - 09:27

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
Drug-induced intrahepatic cholestasis (DIC) is a main type of hepatic toxicity that is challenging to predict in early drug development stages. Preclinical animal studies often fail to detect DIC in humans. In vitro toxicogenomics assays using human liver cells have become a practical approach to

Last updated on: 15-02-2024 - 11:59

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal
Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare inborn error of metabolism caused by a defective homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HGD), an enzyme involved in the tyrosine degradation pathway. Loss of HGD function leads to the accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA) in connective body tissues in a process called

Last updated on: 06-12-2023 - 14:45

Contact: Sien Lequeue
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Partners: RWTH Aachen
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
For therapeutic or reporter molecules to be effective for therapy or imaging applications, proper accumulation of the compounds in the tissue of interest is required, with minimal accumulation in undesired organs to avoid toxic side-effects and increase bioavailability. After initial in vitro

Last updated on: 09-08-2022 - 16:34

Contact: Sophie Hernot
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
Lung cancer thrives in a complex multicellular tumor microenvironment (TME) that impacts tumor growth, metastasis, response, and resistance to therapy. While orthotopic murine lung cancer models can partly recapitulate this complexity, they do not resonate with high-throughput immunotherapeutic drug

Last updated on: 16-03-2022 - 14:53

Contact: Cleo Goyvaerts
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Partners: Institut Curie
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
We established a protocol to efficiently generate hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) from human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). Our procedure generated complex in vitro spheroid cultures that better mimic the complexity of the liver as well as liver function. In co-culture, iPSC-HSCs promote maintenance

Last updated on: 16-03-2022 - 14:49

Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Partners: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
The CALUX method is an in vitro bioassay that uses reporter gene cell lines that have been stably transfected with a luciferase reporter gene under the control of relevant receptor specific DNA response element. This enables the screening for chemicals that can bind to specific receptors and

Last updated on: 16-03-2022 - 14:47

Contact: Imke Boonen
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Amoebae are natural eukaryotic predators of bacteria, yeasts, fungi and they are ubiquiste. They are excellent and easy-to-use cellular infection models, as they allow to co-cultivate any organisms in a broad range of infection medium, compatible with high quality microscopy techniques,

Last updated on: 16-03-2022 - 14:45

Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal