Researchers successfully develop animal free methods for testing chemical compounds for allergens, ahead of the EU ban

As of march 2013 there is a ban in the European Union (EU) on animal testing of ingredients for cosmetics. The ban applies to all new cosmetics and their ingredients sold in the EU, regardless of where in the world testing on animals was carried out. The 27 EU countries have had a ban on such tests in place since 2009, but despite this, cosmetics firms were allowed to continue testing on animals for the most complex human health effects, such as toxicity which might lead to cancer. However, those tests now come under the ban too.

This controversy has resulted in research to produce new, animal free, testing methods for chemicals. One such research initiative involved was Sens-it-iv (www.sens-it-iv.eu), a large EU-funded research project dedicated to develop and optimise in vitro (‘out of body’) test strategies that could reduce or replace animal testing for sensitization studies. In 2005, lead by Malin Lindstedt, at the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University, Sweden, and professor Carl Borrebaeck, Vice Chancellor of Lund University and sub-coordinator of Sens-it-iv, Lindstedt’s group joined with Sens-it-iv. At this time there were no animal free methods for testing chemical compounds for their potential to induce allergies on the market.

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Dr. Albrekt is using Qlucore Omics Explorer, to help her to get the most value out of the data being produced by this research.

"Although gene expression studies are proving invaluable to the study of allergens, the amount of data that is produced by these experiments is enormous,' she says. 'As a result, it is impossible to derive any real biological meaning from these findings unless sophisticated data algorithms are used to help interpret this data effectively."