Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

With an estimated 350,000 chemicals being used by society, as well as countless industrial and agricultural sources of pollutants, chemical contamination poses significant ecological and human health risks. These issues are magnified by the great ethical and economic concerns associated with the current live animal based chemical and environmental assessment practices. Thus, stakeholders from academia, the private sector and government are demanding a paradigm shift in the toxicological sciences to one rooted in mechanistic toxicology and alternative testing approaches that require advanced types of biological and toxicological data. The overall goal of this Discovery Grant program is to generate novel knowledge that can catalyze this urgently needed paradigm shift. It aims to significantly advance our understanding of the basic biology and stress response of key indicator species in aquatic ecosystems, which are critical for future conservation and environmental risk assessment efforts. This will be accomplished by 1) conducting baseline research using whole transcriptome and proteome investigations paired with traditional biological studies to generate a comprehensive systems biology understanding of critical biological and toxicological processes across vertebrate species; 2) using this baseline knowledge to identify focused gene transcript sets that can predict the health impacts or ecological risks of chemicals across vertebrate species; and 3) applying these approaches and knowledge to characterize the impacts of chemicals of concern in aquatic ecosystems of concern. Using fish and amphibian embryos, we will apply RNA sequencing and LC-MS shotgun proteomics paired with higher level physiological, histological, behavioural, and morphological assessments under natural and stressed (exposure to chemicals) conditions. This will enable us to characterize critical molecular targets of chemicals of concern including those commonly found in the environment and ones with known, yet diverse, modes of action capturing key toxicological processes. Studies will focus on standard lab models that are used in human health and ecological research, as well as less described ecological receptors of concern. Together, the research proposed will generate novel knowledge to address critical and contemporary knowledge gaps in systems biology, toxicology, and environmental and chemical risk assessment. It also aims to provide the public and private sectors with information needed to develop more reliable, economic, and ethical chemical assessment tools and management practices to ensure better human and ecological health while enabling more sustainable economies. HQP will be central to this research program and will receive innovative, comprehensive, equitable, immersive, and interdisciplinary training that will prepare them well for their future careers in academia as well as the private and public sectors.