New testing methods may mean that experiments on animals can be drastically reduced in the future. In a laboratory in Borås ongoing research to find new animal-free methods of analysis.
– The aim is to replace animal testing, while we hope to find methods that make it easier to predict chemicals impact on people, says Emma Pedersen, a researcher at the Swedish Technical Research Institute (SP).
SP is one of three European laboratories involved in an EU project with the aim to evaluate new animal-free methods of analysis. In so-called in vitro assays tested chemicals in a laboratory environment on a human cell rather than on animals.
– One of the errors using animal testing is that it is often poor correlation to how it works in humans. Now we test this new approach both forwards and backwards in different endocrine-disrupting chemicals to see how human cells react, says Emma Pedersen.
SP as well as two research laboratories in France and England been commissioned by the EU-controlled ECVAM, which is working to develop alternative testing methods. Boras Laboratory has just launched the validation work of the new method and expects to complete its part of the project in mid-2016.
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