Cell-based test systems for assessing the safety of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and biocidal products

Pharmaceuticals are essential for human and animal health, but increased consumption and their often uncritical use lead to an increase in harmful and permanent residues in the environment, which can have undesirable effects on organisms, populations and ecosystems. Surface and groundwater as well as soils are particularly affected by this. They enter the food chain through drinking water and agricultural products and thus harm not only ecosystems but also humans. The same is true for pesticides and biocidal products, which are released into the environment when used.

Reduction of problematic chemicals in the environment: through removal and minimizing their discharge

Technical solutions for the collection and elimination of pollutants, e.g. PFAS or drug residues, from wastewater provide a remedy to reduce the harmful effects of persistent substances via drinking water.

At the same time, it is crucial to minimize the entry of chemicals, pollutants and pharmaceuticals into the environment and to focus on the development of more environmentally friendly or biodegradable ingredients. Furthermore, it is essential to provide methods for a fast assessment of their hazard potential – even at high-throughput rates.

Our specific reporter cells are based on primary cells from healthy donors. Isolated directly from the original tissue, these cells – in contrast to commercial cell lines from tumor tissues – resemble the in-vivo state of the cells and exhibit normal physiology. Through targeted immortalization, the isolated primary cells can be continuously cultivated and are therefore reproduceable and available without restriction. Due to these properties, they are ideally suited as model systems for investigating the effects of active ingredients and toxic substances on cells and characterizing their hazard potential. By using cell-based test systems, we can realistically simulate the in-vivo situation and analyze cell reactions in real time.

Cell-based assays, particularly those based on reporter cells, are also highly efficient and save time and money thanks to photometric evaluation methods. Reporter gene assays are invaluable for investigating gene expression or the activation of cell signaling pathways. The activation of cell signaling pathways is detected and measured by quantifying the expression of the reporter gene. Our reporter gene assays enable us to pursue very specific questions in real time, for example whether and to what extent substances trigger allergic reactions or lead to harmful effects.

The established cell-based test and screening assays using reporter systems have been patented and are available to our customers and project partners exclusively for contract analyses or via out-licensing.

With our expertise, we are happy to develop further models according to the specific requirements of our customers. Our technologies can be used for numerous applications in medicine, pharmacy and veterinary medicine, in environmental biotechnology, in industrial biotechnology and for biotechnological processes in general.