StratiCELL at a glance - A strategy for scientific excellence and replacement of animal testing.

Founded in early 2005, StratiCELL is a leading company assisting the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and chemical industries to the safety and activity evaluation of their actives and products in a GLP-compliant environment (accreditation ongoing) by means of in vitro models and methods.

StratiCELL has a strong R&D and innovation commitment to ensure the most up-to-date in vitro solutions at the highest scientific standards, with state-of-the-art equipments and technology platforms including cell culture facilities, histology, real-time qPCR & TaqMan arrays, DNA microarrays, protein chemistry, immunoassays, fluorescence microscopy, Franz-cell system, HPLC etc.

StratiCELL is a project-driven service provider for in vitro testing, with a particular emphasis on testing of skin care actives and products. StratiCELL services have their use in different stages of product development aiming to reduce the time to market and to create an added-value of the product. StratiCELL is unique in its kind, providing an integrated solution for in vitro testing of skin care products, because we manufacture in-house the in vitro skin models and offer the laboratory testing services as well.

StratiCELL laboratories cell culture rooms and offices are located within the Crealys Science Park, implanted in Belgium, nearby Brussels at the heart of Europe. The company has a strong international profile, with 80% of its turnover performed abroad.

StratiCELL participates in several collaborative research projects from the EU 7th Framework Program. StratiCELL is accredited « Crédit-Impôts-Recherche » (CIR) by the French Ministry of Education and Research. StratiCELL is committed to the 3R philosophy for replacement, refinement, and reduction of animal testing, and this commitment is demonstrated by our involvement in the EPAA , and other initiatives to promote alternative testing.

An overview of the company activities

As a service provider for in vitro testing of dermato-cosmetic activity of skin care products:

• Cellular senescence and ageing
• Sun protection
• Skin pigmentation
• Skin barrier function
• Gene expression in the skin
• Epidermal differentiation
• Anti-oxidation
• Wound Healing and angiogenesis
• Skin inflammation

As a service provider in in vitro toxicity testing:

• Regulatory in vitro Safety Testing, following OECD and ECVAM validated protocols in accordance with GLP OECD guidelines (accreditation ongoing)
  In Vitro Skin Corrosion
  In Vitro Skin Irrritation
  In Vitro Phototoxicity
  In Vitro Skin Absorption
  In Vitro Genotoxicity
  Reproductive toxicity
• Preclinical in vitro Toxicity Screening (dermal toxicity, eye Irritation, cytotoxicity, ...)

As a service provider in in vitro penetration and absorption studies:

• In Vitro Skin penetration and Absorption
• Regulatory testing : In Vitro Skin Absorption (OECD 428)

As a service provider in gene expression analysis:

• Screening for key skin biological processes of skin care products with the StratiCELL^® Skin & Dermato-Cosmetic TaqMan Array
• Mechanistic data collection of thematic skin biological processes with the StratiCELL^® Thematic TaqMan Arrays
  • Melanogenesis & Sun Protection;
  • Stress;
  • Skin disorders & sensitive skin;
  • Epidermal differentiation & Skin barrier function;
  • Wound healing & Inflammation
• Fully customized TaqMan Arrays in combination with skin & other biologically relevant models
• Fully customized Quantitative Real Time PCR
• Predesigned TaqMan Arrays

As a skin model manufacturer:

• StratiCELL^® Reconstituted Human Epidermis (ref. EPI/001)
• StratiCELL^® Reconstituted Human Epidermis containing melanocytes (ref. MEL/001)

As your customized R&D partner for in vitro testing