Venomous crustacean from Mayan underwater caves provides new drug candidates

08-Oct-2024 - Zootoxins affect a wide range of physiological processes and are therefore of great interest for drug research. An international study led by Björn von Reumont of Goethe University Frankfurt has identified novel toxins from the cave-dwelling underwater crustacean Xibalbanus tulumensis that ...

BASF to research on alternatives to animal testing on behalf of the European Chemicals Agency

Number of animal experiments required for safety assessments of chemical substances to be further reduced

07-Feb-2024 - The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has contracted a consortium that includes BASF to conduct scientific studies on the reliability and relevance of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) as alternatives to animal testing and to promote the use of such methods in the future. The aim of the contract ...

Assessing the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics to ecosystems

Smaller is not necessarily less toxic

12-Oct-2023 - For most pollutants, there are standard protocols for assessing the risks to ecosystems. Despite the increasing concern about the harmful effects of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs), so far, there exist no harmonised guidelines for testing the ecotoxicity of MNPs. An international research team ...

Unprecedented dynamic-range resolution useful for examining impact of environmental pollutants on cells and tissues

Full-body synchrotron imaging of roundworms reveals nanoparticle accumulation

02-Jun-2022 - Scientists working at DESY’s PETRA III light source have been able to generate the first synchrotron-based X-ray map of the whole body of an organism at such a high resolution that contaminants could be detected at the individual cell level. The research team was able to identify cerium ...

Green chemistry needs more green toxicology

Sustainable bioeconomy: Development of environmentally friendly bio-shampoos and plant protection agent technologies

16-Feb-2022 - With the early assessment of sustainable, newly developed chemicals and products it is possible to assess a potential risk of toxic substances being released at a later point in product cascades. This has been revealed in a proof-of-concept study jointly coordinated by Goethe University Frankfurt ...

World's first toxicology testing strategy without animal testing adopted by OECD

Success for long-standing collaboration between BASF and Givaudan to develop and validate alternative methods

30-Jun-2021 - The world’s first toxicology testing strategy without animal testing has been approved by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The testing strategy consists of three so-called alternative methods. They can be used to predict whether a substance causes allergic ...

Fungus produces highly effective surfactant

26-Jun-2019 - Mortierella alpina lives in the soil and likes to keep cool. This fungus, which belongs to the zygomycetes, grows best at temperatures of 10 to 15°C and occurs mainly in alpine or arctic habitats. In biotechnology, the fungus has been used for the large-scale production of polyunsaturated fatty ...

Promising transport molecule for steroid medications discovered

09-Nov-2016 - When the word steroids comes up, a lot of people think of doping. It is much less well known that steroids are used in the treatment of many diseases, such as asthma, neurodermatitis, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn’s Disease. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Jacobs ...

Novel test method to replace animal testing

17-Aug-2016 - Testing the impact of chemo toxicity on the human development without having to resort to animal testing: To get closer to this goal, the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation (TiHo) and the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) are developing a new in-situ test method to examine the ...

Highly efficient agent against Wilson disease

23-Jun-2016 - In Wilson disease, also called Wilson's disease or hepatolenticular degeneration, the body is no longer able to excrete excess copper ingested from food into the intestines via the bile. Instead, the copper is stored in the liver and other organs, where it can cause severe damage. Doctors ...