Update on the Colipa research programme for development of in vitro alternative methods for eye irritation

The COLIPA eye irritation programme for development of in vitro eye irritation assays incorporates integrated research projects and collaborative activities with external partners. The research projects focus on understanding mechanisms of eye injury and identification of new in vitro endpoints more predictive of the in vivo human response to chemical injury resulting in new or improved in vitro methods that would proceed to formal validation. There are three projects: 1) investigation of whether kinetics/patterns of change in physiological function/signals of injury released from the cornea in vitro can predict a chemical's potential to damage the eye with a focus on recovery; 2) identification of endpoints related to magnitude of injury and repair in 3-dimensional human corneal constructs and 3) a genomics project using a pattern recognition approach to identify new endpoints for injury and repair for potential use in current/future in vitro assays. Equally important to achieve validated in vitro methods are other activities such as continued development/ optimisation of currently existing models and industry collaboration with academia, external scientific organisations and regulators. COLIPA is working with producers of Human Reconstructed Tissue (HRT) eye irritation models to further develop/optimise these models and with ECVAM through participation in its Eye Irritation Task Force and provision of an independent bio-statistician for post-hoc analysis of current in vitro methods.