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Reconstructed Skin Micronucleus Genotoxicity Assay

Award Information
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Branch: National Institutes of Health
Contract: 2R44ES015002-02A1
Agency Tracking Number: ES015002
Amount: $819,104.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N/A
Solicitation Number: PHS2009-2
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2009
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
MATTEK CORPORATION 200 HOMER AVE
ASHLAND, MA 01721
United States
DUNS: 147365936
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 YULIA KALUZHNY
 (508) 881-6771
 YKALUZHNY@MATTEK.COM
Business Contact
 MITCHELL KLAUSNER
Phone: (508) 881-6771
Email: mklausner@mattek.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As part of a standard toxicological evaluation, all new products must be tested to insure they are not genotoxic. Animal tests are available but European legislation that takes effect in 2009 will ban animal testing. This legislation will affect almost all large US multinational personal care, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical companies. Non-animal, in vitro tests exist; however, they lack specificity and result in an unacceptably high rate of false positives. This leads to a large number of materials being excluded from further development even though are safe. The long term goal of the proposal is to validate an in vitro test method to accurately determine human skin genotoxicity. Phase 1 research made significant progress in developing a reconstructed skin micronucleus (RSMN) assay for genotoxicity testing. A standardized protocol, a pre- screen cytotoxicity assay, and a prediction model (based on statistically significant increases in micronuclei in dividing cells) were defined and tested. A previously published method was improved to increase the sensitivity of the assay for detecting genotoxins requiring metabolic activation. In addition, long term reproducibility studies utilizing tissue from multiple donors showed highly reproducible results. Phase 2 will further build on Phase 1 results to optimize the assay method, automate scoring, expand the database of materials tested, demonstrate interlaboratory reproducibility, and adapt the assay to a high throughput format. These studies will lay the groundwork for formal validation and regulatory acceptance of the assay. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Current genotoxicity test methods rely on animals or in vitro tests. However, the in vitro methods give an unacceptable percentage of false positive test results and animal testing will be banned for US based multinational companies due to pending legislation. This project will develop an in vitro assay which accurately predicts human genotoxicity.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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