Inhalation Toxicity

The Science Consortium helps researchers implement animal-free inhalation toxicity testing by funding method development, offering awards for travel and equipment, and organising free workshops and webinars. The goal of this multifaceted approach is to develop in vitro and in silico testing strategies that replace the use of animals in the assessment of acute and long-term respiratory toxicity.

Following a workshop on sub-chronic toxicity testing, we funded the development and testing of MatTek’s EpiAlveolar model – the first commercially available 3-dimensional reconstructed human tissue model of the lower respiratory tract. We are also funding the development of a cell-based testing approach to predicting acute inhalation toxicity in humans, following several workshops on the topic.

The Science Consortium has also awarded laboratories equipment, such as 3-dimensional tissues and in vitro exposure devices from VITROCELL Systems, for assessing respiratory toxicity.

See below for a list of awards related to inhalation toxicity:

• Award with Epithelix Sàrl for 3D human tissue models to assess respiratory toxicity (2024, 2023, 2018)
• Award for MedTec Biolab In Vitro Inhalation Exposure System (2021)
• Award with MatTek Life Sciences for 3D human tissue models to assess respiratory toxicity (2021)
• Award of VITROCELL^®in vitro inhalation exposure systems (2019, 2017)