Problem
During the development of a new drug, rigorous toxicity testing must be completed to demonstrate safety for approval. A new drug candidate has shown promise with respect to its ability to bind to the therapeutic receptor of interest in vitro, however the toxicity of this drug candidate in vivo has not yet been investigated. To date, experiments involving exposure of cultured hepatocytes to this drug candidate has resulted in decreased activity of a critical transcription factor. Your group would like to investigate whether this result translates to the in vivo scenario. Further, if there is an impact on the transcription factor activity in vivo, you are wondering if it will have any downstream effects.
• Develop a specific and testable hypothesis to investigate your concerns.