Head of cellular toxicology unit

Professor Atterwill regards the setting up of the cellular toxicology unit at the biosciences department as one of its major achievements.

The unit studies diseases caused by cell damage and develops alternatives to using animals for evaluating the toxicity, safety and effectiveness of new drugs. He says the need for drug evaluation techniques that do not require the use of animals is becoming increasingly important because of a dramatic increase in the production of new drug molecules by pharmaceutical companies.

One of the research projects at the cellular toxicology unit concerns neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. Scientists at the department, led by Wendy Purcell, were the first to isolate a special kind of brain cell called the mast cell. Professor Atterwill said: "There is considerable interest in finding out how mast cells may be involved in diseases like Alzheimer's and in the behaviour of the brain when it is assaulted by neurotoxic chemicals such as ecstasy or environmental pollutants."

It had already been shown that mast cells in some parts of the body other than the brain release substances that can support the survival and repair of nerve cells. The Pounds 110,000 project, backed by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, aims to find out whether mast cells in the brain are also capable of promoting survival of neurons and whether they can alleviate the loss of neurons caused by diseases like Alzheimer's.

He said: "The key thing is that we are now able to isolate brain mast cells for the first time and maintain them in cell cultures. This could enable us to find out whether they have survival and repair functions and the kind of mechanisms they might use."