Toxys and Leiden University to commercialise and develop animal-free toxicity testing platform
pharmafile | January 29, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications | Toxys
Toxys, Leiden University, and Leiden University Medical Center have agreed to commercialise and develop further the ToxProfiler technology invented at the two institutions.
ToxProfiler allows for rapid toxicity hazard identification of novel and existing drugs, chemicals, and other substances, and can also provide detailed and quantitative information about the mode-of-action of such toxic substances. The new technology enlarges the portfolio of toxicity testing that Toxys can make available to the world, complementing the company’s existing genotoxicity and repro-toxicity testing platforms.
The technology on which the ToxProfiler platform is based was developed by the Leiden Academic Centre of Drug Research (LACDR). The platform consists of a large collection of fluorescent reporter cell lines in combination with automated live-cell imaging and data analysis pipelines, and is particularly applicable for early chemical safety testing as well as read-across, adverse outcome pathway, and weight-of-evidence approaches.
The ToxProfiler platform can be applied to accurately quantify the chemical-induced cellular stress response pathways to reveal the toxicological mode-of-action of novel medicines, (agro)chemicals, cosmetics, and food ingredients. Differentiation of the ToxProfiler reporter cells in 3D spheroids can be applied to study liver metabolisation or bioaccumulation, and long-term exposure effects by repeated dosing of compounds.
Giel Hendriks, CEO of Toxys, said: “Toxys is continuously looking for opportunities to expand its portfolio of unique animal-free assays for chemical safety testing. The ToxProfiler technology aligns perfectly with our already robust portfolio of toxicology services.
“We are very excited to bring ToxProfiler to our clients and further support the non-animal safety testing of novel medicines, chemicals and other products.”
Hubertus Irth, Scientific Director of the LACDR at Leiden University, commented: “We are proud to work with Toxys to bring our technology to the market. With the scientific expertise and proven experience with bringing innovative cell assays to the market, we believe that Toxys is the ideal partner to further develop and commercialise our ToxProfiler technology.
“Valorisation and contributing to solving important societal problems like reducing animal testing is a key priority for our university.”
Darcy Jimenez
