The increasing incidence of human neurological disorders has created a strong concern over the possibility that chemicals in the environment may play a role by adversely affecting the developing human nervous system.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 80,000 chemicals in use lack sufficient developmental neurotoxicology data because testing methods cost more than $1 million per chemical and require more than one year to complete.
However, the new Thermo Scientific ToxInsight Developmental Neurotoxicity Panel enables rapid and cost-effective screening for the effects of these chemicals on neuronal cells. This assay and the ToxInsight CHPS Platform combine frozen stocks of engineered rodent neuronal cells with fluorescent dyes and is designed to produce positive or negative outcome determinations from several measurements of growing neurons in fluid culture.
The ToxInsight CHPS Platform makes multiple measurements on each cell, generating a phenotype rather than a single measurement, as compared to traditional biochemical assays (such as cell count, LDH, MTT etc.). In addition to automated developmental neurotoxicity screening, this automated, bench-top platform is easy-to-use and provides physiologically relevant toxicity assays in vitro, reducing the reliance on late-stage histopathology or animal studies. The ToxInsight CHPS Platform not only profiles compounds for their toxicity risk, but it also determines the mechanism of action of any toxicity detected, enabling researchers to rapidly understand the risk of exposure to the chemical.
The Thermo Scientific ToxInsight Developmental Neurotoxicity Panel and ToxInsight CHPS Platform will be demonstrated at booth 1634 at the Society of Toxicology 2012 annual meeting in San Francisco, March 12-14, 2012.
For more information on the entire Thermo Scientific range of products for consumer and health products safety, call 1-800-432-4091 or visit www.thermoscientific.com/toxinsight.
About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. With revenues of $12 billion, we have approximately 39,000 employees and serve customers within pharmaceutical and biotech companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions and government agencies, as well as in environmental and process control industries. We create value for our key stakeholders through three premier brands, Thermo Scientific, Fisher Scientific and Unity™ Lab Services, which offer a unique combination of innovative technologies, convenient purchasing options and a single solution for laboratory operations management. Our products and services help our customers solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Visit www.thermofisher.com.
