Research projects

• Irritation / sensitisation
  Industry wants to develop not only efficient but also safe functional molecules for use in diverse applications. Assessment of potential toxicological safety hazard of all these compounds relies mainly on in vivo animal tests which have important economical and ethical drawbacks. It is well known that many chemicals have the potency to induce skin/eye irritation or skin/lung allergic reactions in susceptible individuals. Cardam conducts research on the development of in vitro methods that permit the prospective identification of chemicals with an irritating or an allergic/sensitising potential.
  
  
• Non invasive biomarkers
  Monitoring the impact of environmental pollution on human health has increased remarkably over the past few decades. Biomarkers that indicate either body exposure to or the effects of environmental pollutants, are often measured in blood, urine, broncho-alveolar lavage or sputum as early warning signals for environmental impact on health. There is clear evidence that children are more susceptible to some stressors in the environment. Rapid growth, tissue and organ development and vulnerable time-windows of exposure during embryonic or fetal periods make children particularly susceptible. Critical needs in children’s biomonitoring include exposure and health effect assessment, biological sample collection and ethics. Efforts are made to develop less or non-invasive biomarkers for use in children’s environmental research. The analysis of exhaled breath is becoming a topic of increasing interest in the field of human bio-monitoring. Cardam supports the development of non-invasive tests using exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and exhaled gasses.
  
  
• Neurotoxicity and development toxicity
  Industrial and agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and consumer products should be assessed for their safety, which requires extended animal testing related to high costs and ethical discussions. The protection of childrens health for neurotoxic environmental exposures from the earliest stages of fetal development on is clearly a major societal concern. Cardam does anticipate to these needs for assessment of neuro-developmental toxicity by optimisation and validation of alternative test systems. Research with zebrafishembryo as an alternative whole organism model showed the validity for toxicity testing and drug screening during early discovery. Methods are available to evaluate early malformations and neurobehavioral disorders in embryo, and genomics technology does contribute to a better understanding of toxic mechanisms.

• Eye irritation

CARDAM obtained a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (http://www.snfoundation.org) for a three-year research program to improve the Bovine Cornea Opacity and Permeability (BCOP) Assay by using a new constructed opacitometer with laser light and adapting the cornea holders to create a real in vivo situation when eyes are exposed to compounds. These modifications should allow a more accurate definition of the eye irritating potential of compounds and a more precise ranking of mild to non-irritating compounds, eventually positioning this modified BCOP as a valuable alternative to the Draize animal test for predicting chemical class eye irritation.