Reagents for Drug Toxicity Studies Using Megakaryocytes

The development of hematopoietic defined protein-free reagents that support megakaryocyteformation will be of inestimatable importance. The rationale for developing such reagents is that it willallow the measurement of drug toxicity in its unbound state in which all of the drug is active. Thereagents will be uniform standard reagents for such assays, save investigator time and effort indeveloping such reagents and facilitate drug evaluation free of bond drug. This research combinesthe strengths of two laboratories, one skilled in development of protein-free and serum-free reagentsand the other in megakaryocyte assay. Such a combination should bode well for the success of thisproposal. The Phase I effort will focus on the development of defined reagents for a murinemegakaryocyte assays. The Phase II effort will focus on the development of defined reagants forhuman megakaryocyte assays.