What is DART?
Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity, or DART, describes adverse effects a substance may have on growth, embryo development, and fertility.
DART testing helps establish safer exposure ranges and identify potential risks before products reach later stages of development.
Why C. elegans?
C. elegans combines the biological complexity of an intact whole-organism with transparent anatomy and a short life cycle. Conserved pathways, oral exposure routes, and xenobiotic metabolism enable toxicity assessment in C. elegans. Learn more about C. elegans →
Whole-Organism
Ethical Model
Genetic Homology
Predictive Data
High Predictivity
Large chemical-set comparisons report concordance between C. elegans and mammalian toxicity outcomes, supporting its use as an efficient early-stage whole-organism model.
Key DART Endpoints
Developmental Health
Reduced body size can indicate delayed or disrupted development following chemical exposure.
Body Length
Body Area
Body Volume
Reproductive Health
Shifts in reproductive output can be analyzed by the count and classification of in utero embryos by developmental stage.
Early Embryo
Late Embryo
Total Embryo
Motility and Viability
Maintaining viability as DART endpoints change shows sublethal, development- and reproduction-specific effects rather than general organism toxicity.
Motility & Viability
Endpoints measured by vivoDART correspond to key endpoints used in traditional mammalian toxicity testing.
| vivoDART Endpoints | Mammalian-Equivalent Endpoints | Relevance (Phenotype Class) |
|---|---|---|
| Body Volume (and Size) | Parental Body Weight (and Size) | Reductions in body size correlate with delayed parental development |
| In-Utero Embryo Count and Developmental Stage | Number of Offspring and Survival Rates | Altered embryonic endpoints suggest toxicity in reproductive health |
| Motility | Apical/Survival | Motility defects in C. elegans correlate with survival rates |
Human females and C. elegans reach peak fertility at comparable life stages and exhibit broadly similar reproductive function across their lifetimes. (Adapted from Athar & Templeman, 2022).
From Chemical Exposure to Toxicity Insights
Obtain high-content toxicology data with vivoDART.
Chemical Treatment
Expose synchronized populations to concentration-response conditions.
High-Resolution Imaging
Capture clear whole-organism images.
AI-Assisted Quantification
Quantify multiple developmental and reproductive endpoints.
Dose-Response Curves
Transform biological response into actionable toxicity insights.
AI-Accelerated Endpoint Analysis
vivoVerse has developed AI models to measure body dimensions and classify all in utero embryos by developmental stage. The automated pipeline replaces days of manual analysis, reducing human error and fatigue while improving the speed and accuracy of DART endpoint quantification.
Intra-Lab Validation
vivoDART is a well-characterized and harmonized assay, providing confidence in the reproducibility and statistical performance. vivoDART is designed to achieve at least 80% statistical power for detecting meaningful phenotype changes relative to the control.
Developmental Endpoints
Reproductive Endpoints
5
Biological Replicates
6
Technical Replicates
Multiple
Scientists
>700,000
Organisms Analyzed
>20 million
Embryos Analyzed
50+
Chemicals Tested
A Modern Approach
New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) are being adopted by regulatory bodies worldwide to efficiently generate predictive safety data while reducing reliance on traditional animal studies.
vivoDART uses an intact, whole-organism model as a NAM to generate predictive DART endpoints while preserving oral exposure capabilities, biotransformation capacity, multicellular and multiorgan interactions, and complete lifecycle biology – unlike conventional in vitro systems.
