Endotoxins are lipopolysaccharides anchored at the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. These pyrogenic compounds can be introduced in pharmaceutical products during their manufacture and could induce severe physiological reactions in humans. This is why endotoxins are dosed, in order to assure

Last updated on: 28-09-2023 - 11:59

Contact: Flore Laurent
Organisation: Sciensano
Status: Internally validated, Validated by an external party (e.g. OECD, EURL ECVAM,…)
The purpose of the present development is to use avian MoDCs to implement a cellular platform to increase understanding of the immune responses induced by various antigens of interest (e.g. vaccine candidates) and evaluate their immunogenic potential. Considering the difficulty to work on dendritic

Last updated on: 03-02-2023 - 08:51

Contact: Fiona Ingrao
Organisation: Sciensano
Status: Still in development
This method relates to the development of highly reproducible human iPSC-derived neurospheroids equipped with intrinsic bioluminescence for an easy and longitudinal follow-up of the viability and growth of these neurospheroids over time. The luminescent neurospheroids have been applied in ischemic

Last updated on: 02-01-2023 - 10:27

Organisation: University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
For the risk assessment of compounds migrating from food contact materials (FCM), information on the exposure to the migrant as well as its possible hazards is needed. To support the evaluation of both starting products and NIAS from plastic FCM, the VERMEER FCM tool has been developed within the

Last updated on: 29-11-2022 - 14:46

Organisation: Sciensano
Status: Internally validated
The in vitro micronucleus test is a genotoxicity test for the detection of micronuclei in the cytoplasm of interphase cells and has been described in detail in OECD TG 487. Micronuclei may originate from acentric chromosome fragments (i.e. lacking a centromere), or whole chromosomes that

Last updated on: 23-11-2022 - 16:31

Contact: Birgit Mertens
Organisation: Sciensano
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal, Validated by an external party (e.g. OECD, EURL ECVAM,…)
The main objective of this research project is to create the first full-thickness cornea-on-chip, which comprises a 3D construct with every cellular layer of the cornea. This construct is embedded in a microfluidic chip with two channels that are continuously perfused. The epithelial side of the

Last updated on: 27-07-2022 - 09:35

Contact: Joris Van Meenen
Organisation: University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen)
Status: Still in development
The VITOTOX test is a bacterial genotoxicity test. The test is based on bacteria that contain the lux operon of Vibrio fischeri under transcriptional control of the mutated recN promoter, which is controlled by the bacterial SOS-system (TA 104-recN2-4 strain or Genox strain). After incubation

Last updated on: 26-05-2022 - 10:40

Contact: Roel Anthonissen
Organisation: Sciensano
Status: History of use, Published in peer reviewed journal
The CALUX® system (Chemically Actived LUciferase eXpression) of Bio Detection Systems (BDS, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) uses U-2 OS cells (human osteoblast) that are stably transfected with human TRb or human PPARg2 (BDS, Amsterdam) and a luciferase reporter construct under the control of a receptor

Last updated on: 05-05-2022 - 08:59

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Sciensano
Partners: BDS
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
In silico tools are computer-assisted methodologies with a high-throughput that allow to predict the toxic potential of compounds without experimental testing. Consequently, in silico tools are time-, cost- and animal-saving in nature. The most commonly used methods are (quantitative) structure

Last updated on: 24-03-2022 - 11:25

Contact: Birgit Mertens
Organisation: Sciensano
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
The ATP cell viability assay (CellTiter-Glo assay test kit) provides a quantitative measurement of the ATP content directly proportional to the number of cells present in culture. The homogeneous assay procedure involves adding one single reagent, CellTiter-Glo Reagent directly to cells cultured in

Last updated on: 24-03-2022 - 11:20

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Sciensano
Status: History of use, Published in peer reviewed journal