€1.5 Million Grant for Validation of a New Animal-Free Testing Method

ZonMw and the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space are providing €1.5 million in funding for AdipoNEXT. The project will officially launch on Tuesday, June 2, and aims to validate a new testing method for measuring the effects of chemicals on the formation and function of fat cells.

Substances that disrupt our metabolism can cause fat accumulation and contribute to the obesity epidemic. That is why it is important to be able to identify this effect accurately. Instead of animal testing, AdipoNEXT uses human stem cells and automated microscopy. The intended outcome is a validated new testing method that supports the regulatory identification of endocrine-disrupting substances and can serve as the basis for an OECD test guideline.

Substances that disrupt our metabolism can cause fat accumulation and contribute to the obesity epidemic. It is therefore important to reliably identify these effects. Instead of using animal testing, AdipoNEXT uses human stem cells and automated microscopy. The intended outcome is a validated new testing method that supports the regulatory identification of metabolism-disrupting substances and can serve as the basis for an OECD test guideline.

The Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), part of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University, plays a central role in the project as project coordinator. IRAS is also the laboratory where the method was originally developed. Coordination is led by Jorke Kamstra and Juliette Legler. As the lead laboratory, IRAS is responsible, among other things, for training the other participating laboratories.
“The goal is to achieve international acceptance of this method so that governments and industry can use it for the safety assessment of chemicals,” says Kamstra. “This directly contributes to the phase-out of animal testing.”