Dntox

Dntox operates as a bioanalytical testing laboratory, providing animal-free screening of chemicals to determine their potential for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT).

The company was established in March 2022 as a spin-off from the IUF – Leibniz Institute for Environmental Medicine Research in Düsseldorf, Germany. The foundation of Dntox is built upon the extensive research of Professor Dr. Ellen Fritsche, a medical scientist and toxicologist at the IUF. The founding team is a multidisciplinary group that includes Prof. Fritsche, economist Silke Beaucamp, biotechnologists Dr. Katharina Koch and Dr. Kristina Bartmann, and bioinformaticians Dr. Arif Dönmez and Prof. Axel Mosig. In June 2023, the company secured €1.4 million in a seed funding round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds, with contributions from private investors and other capital firms. This capital is allocated to establishing test laboratories in Düsseldorf, pursuing GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) accreditation, and launching their test battery to the market.

Dntox addresses a significant challenge in chemical safety assessment, where traditional methods for DNT testing rely on time-consuming, expensive, and ethically debated animal experiments that have limited transferability to humans. The company serves clients in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries by offering fee-for-service compound testing. This service supports customers in identifying safe lead structures during substance development and in the safety assessment required for the approval and re-approval of chemicals.

The core of Dntox's service is an in vitro testing battery based on human cell models, which simulates key processes of human brain development. This system uses human neural progenitor cells and induced pluripotent stem cells in both 2D and 3D cultures to test for developmental and adult neurotoxicity. The process is enhanced by proprietary, AI-supported software for data analysis. This approach significantly reduces the time and cost associated with neurotoxicity testing, cutting testing time from a year to three months and lowering costs from the estimated €1.4 million per substance typical of animal testing.

Keywords: neurotoxicity testing, animal-free screening, in vitro diagnostics, chemical safety, developmental neurotoxicity, human cell models, toxicology, computational biology, life sciences, regulatory compliance