NSF Award
9960650
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to validate the zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a whole animal model for developmental compound toxicity testing using a molecular genetic approach. Many toxic substances produced by the chemical, pharmaceutical and agronomic industries are not properly characterized by comprehensive hazard/risk assessment tests, primarily because of the high cost and experiment time of classical animal-base toxicity testing and the lack of relevance of results to humans.<br/>New vertebrate animal models for hazard/environmental toxicity, which are reproducible, rapid and highly predictive of human toxicity, are needed. Inherent advantages of the zebrafish model include the low cost to generate and maintain embryos, rapid embryogenesis, and a morphological and molecular basis for tissue and organ development similar to humans. Phase I research will use in situ hybridization and Northern Blot<br/>analysis to study the patterns and levels of expression of zebrafish genes which are highly homologous to mammalian genes involved in toxicity response. Following treatment of zebrafish embryos with chemicals, changes in gene expression will be analyzed and compared with other vertebrate models. The zebrafish model will serve as an inexpensive animal model for toxicity testing for the pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and cosmetic industries. The zebrafish model will serve as an inexpensive animal model that can be used to rapidly generate comprehensive information about the function of genes in response to exposure to chemicals, including environmental toxins and drugs. It will be useful to the pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and cosmetic industries in areas such as toxicity testing, pharmacogenomics, drug discovery and screening, <br/>and bioinformatics.
