Blog from October, 2018

We are very pleased to draw your attention to a session at SETAC Europe 2019 with the title: Fish model species in human and environmental toxicology. The session is part of the main track 1-Ecotoxicology and human toxicology (from molecules to organisms, from omics to in vivo). The meeting is held in Helsinki, Finland 26-30 May 2019. Details about submitting a proposal are available on the meeting website https://helsinki.setac.org/. The deadline for abstract submission is 28 November 2018. We hope to receive many fascinating abstracts and are looking forward to a fruitful meeting in Helsinki.

Jessica, Riccardo and Jorke

Fish model species in human and environmental toxicology

CHAIRS: Jessica Legradi, Riccardo Massei, Jorke Kamstra

Fish models are commonly used in human and ecotoxicological research to investigate the impact of chemicals on whole organisms. In fact, many important biological functions are conserved between fish species and humans. Fish have a wide application domain, spanning from basic developmental biology, neurobiology, endocrinology to immunology. The small size of some available fish species including the zebrafish (Danio rerio) or medaka (Oryzias latipes) and their robust nature makes them ideally suited for application in automated high throughput screening. Furthermore, fish early life stages offer all the key attributes of a complex in vivo system (e.g. including metabolism), as well as the advantages of the in vitro assays, as tests can be conducted in multiwell plate formats with small sample volumes and run in short periods of time. These characteristics make them well suited for toxicity testing of environmental samples and to detect unknown contaminants in effect directed analysis (EDA). Research on fish over the last decade has been greatly facilitated by the increasing number of sequenced genomes, which are available for more than twelve species with more pending. This, together with recent advances in genetic and epigenetic studies, including gene knockout and transgenesis technologies, greatly facilitates the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of toxicity, making fish ideally suited for defining adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). Due to the large similarity with other vertebrates, there is also a growing interest in the application of fish model species in human disease etiology and early development. Fish early life stages have recently been used in several cancer genetics studies and drug discovery tests. In ecotoxicology, fish are also studied outside of the laboratory in their native environment. Prominent models for native fish models are roach (Rutilus rutilus) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Studying fish in their natural habitat allows to investigate further than simple dose-effect assessments. Within this session, we intend to show recent developments in toxicological research using a variety of different fish model species, novel systems, endpoints, assays and testing strategies. We will focus on molecular approaches that could lead to new AOPs. Results of toxicity studies of single stressors as well as complex environmental samples are of interest. Molecular effects, multigenerational effects, and population level impacts will be considered. We especially welcome presentations highlighting new Omics approaches for metabolomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics and lipidomics, ideally linking these to phenotype for use in AOPs. The session will be interdisciplinary and bring together researchers across a wide range of research areas with the view to enhance approaches for studying adverse effects in human and wildlife.

PRELIM SESSION TYPE:

Platform and Poster