A new safety method developed by EARA member University of Turku, Finland, could help reduce the numbers of animals used in vaccine testing.
Using the pertussis vaccine for whooping cough, as part of the national vaccination programme in many countries, the researchers developed a new method (iGIST) of detecting the presence of the pertussis toxin which damages cells.
Animals are currently used to detect the toxin, but iGIST detects it at 100-times lower concentrations than the current gold standard detection systems, and is grown entirely through cells in vitro.
The results of the study have been published in American Chemical Society Sensors.