StrataTest to be launched in the European market

Stratatech Corp., a privately-held regenerative medicine company, today announced that it will launch its StrataTest^® full-thickness human skin model to the European market at EUROTOX 2009, the annual meeting of the Federation of European Toxicologists and the European Societies of Toxicology. This year’s meeting is being held in Dresden, Germany, Sept. 13-16.

Composed of both an epidermis and a dermis, the StrataTest^® full-thickness human skin model displays the physical, chemical and histological characteristics of native human skin. The tissue is readily available, reliable and is supplied in an easy-to-use, 24-well format for consumer product testing, drug discovery and toxicity screening.

The StrataTest^® human skin model, which is intended for research use only and is in early-state ECVAM (European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods) validation, is manufactured using Stratatech’s proprietary and clinically-tested NIKS^® human keratinocytes. NIKS^® cells, which have been shown to be pathogen-free and non-tumorigenic, consistently produce a fully-stratified, multi-layered human skin substitute tissue in each well of the StrataTest^® test plate. Each tissue grows as new, native human skin does, replicating its structure and function.

The StrataTest^® product will be featured at the company’s booth at the scientific and commercial exhibition (no. 34 on the Conference Level) being held in conjunction with EUROTOX 2009. The product also will be exhibited at the Organotypic Tissue Culture Substance Evaluation meeting, which is being held Sept. 22-25, in Potsdam, Germany.

“Stratatech is very pleased to launch our StrataTest^® full-thickness human skin model to the European market, where we believe it offers an excellent in vitro alternative to animal testing,” said Lynn Allen-Hoffmann, Ph.D., president and chief executive of Stratatech. “StrataTest^® provides what we believe is a superior, cost-effective skin model for consumer product, drug discovery and other toxicity testing applications. The human skin tissue supplied in our 24-well StrataTest^® plate not only offers an enhanced, high-quality model for in vitro testing, it enables better prediction of in vivo biological response.”