Toxys has been awarded Innovation Credit to further develop ReproTracker
Leiden 20 September 2017 – Today Toxys was awarded an Innovation Credit from RVO to accelerate the develop of the ReproTracker assay. ReproTracker® is a state-of-the-art in vitro reporter assay to rapidly identify compounds that disturb stem cell differentiation and early embryonic development. Testing for developmental toxicity is a crucial part of the early safety testing of novel medicines, chemicals and personal care products. ReproTracker visualises the key events during stem cell differentiations and early embryonic development, thereby allowing us to reliably assess the potential developmental toxicity hazards of new compounds. The assay is build on the technical and scientific background on stem cell differentiation and advanced genome editing and reporter technologies that have been developed by Toxys were previously applied in our ToxTracker assay.
“At Toxys we strongly believe in bringing high quality information to our partners and clients. I strongly believe that the future for human safety assessment is not with simple tests that only provide a yes or no answers, but advanced in vitro models that provide reliable and relevant insight into the mechanism of action of novel chemicals and materials. We are committed to support our partners in understanding their latest compounds and in making the right decisions during R&D of novel products. ReproTracker is the logic next development step in broadening our product portfolio, we combine our expertise that we have developed for ToxTracker to develop an in vitro assay that provides insight into the mode of action in early embryonic development.” – G. Hendriks (CEO Toxys)
Reproductive Toxicology
Previous incidents in the early ‘50s with Softenon, that induced severe malformation in children, emphasised the need to assess whether new products affect reproduction or embryonic development. Today, the regulatory agencies have implemented testing strategies to determine safety of compounds, including developmental toxicity. Currently, development and reproductive toxicity testing (DART) heavily relies on animal testing. The financial and ethical objections as well as the limited predictivity of the animal models for human health risks demands for better DART testing strategies. Toxys aims to apply it’s expertise and technology to develop better animal-free test systems to assess the developmental toxicity properties of novel medicines and chemicals. The financing by RVO allows us to accelerate the development of the ReproTracker assay.
About Toxys
Toxys is a Dutch biotech company that provides innovative in vitro toxicity screening solutions to rapidly identify hazardous and potential carcinogenic properties of novel compounds during the early phases of product and drug development. We aim to bring information to our customers that is essential to make informed decisions on which compounds to progress in the drug/compound development pipeline, thereby contributing to the development of better medicines and products and to reduce animal testing.
About ReproTracker
The ReproTracker is a stem cell-based assay and uses fluorescent reporters to visualise the various stages of early embryonic development. Stem cells are generally accepted as an excellent platform for in vitro developmental toxicity hazard identification. ReproTracker consist of a collection of different stem cell lines each containing a different GFP reporters for the various crucial embryonic development pathways. When the stem cells differentiation into different cells or tissues, the various reporter genes will give a fluorescence signal when a certain development stage has been reached. Integration of the various reporter cell lines in a single assay will allow Toxys to asses if novel compounds can disrupt stem cell differentiation and early embryonic development. Furthermore, ReproTracker can provide valuable information about the underlying mechanisms of toxicity.
For questions please contact us via:
info@toxys.com
+31-(0)71-3322470
www.toxys.com
