Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Research to be carried out in the next six years will consist firstly of the optical imaging of live cancer cell lines exposed to various therapeutic treatments. The work will rely heavily on an optical microscope imaging technique we have developed that can image difficult to detect untagged samples. A major advantage of untagged imaging is the elimination of potential biological abnormalities that can be associated with fluorescence tagging or with the injection of foreign particles into the specimen. Therapies to be explored will include drug, x-ray radiation, UV-visible light therapy, and combinations thereof. Particular emphasis will be placed on light therapy that does not require drug assistance. This option has been poorly investigated to date but offers fewer side effects and reduces the chance of adverse chemical interactions to patients already on a prescription drug regimen. When ethical clearance has been obtained, the therapy studies will be extended to the investigation of live tissues obtained using needle biopsy.     Research will also be continued in the investigation of the mortality of bacteria exposed to quantified doses of short wavelength UV and visible light. This work has implications for drug free sterilization against bacteria and viruses and offers a unique opportunity to examine the effects of light induced chemical bond breaking on the biological properties of reproductive single cell species. Also, we will continue to examine the efficacy of high power visible laser light in the removal of bacterial biofilms and plaques from surfaces.   Current research on the quantification of water toxicity using rainbow trout fingerlings as test species will be extended to include the development of a portable lab facility that can be transported to remote sites for the biological monitoring of effluent. Sites to be sampled will include operational industrial sites, municipal water treatment sites, and abandoned sites that may still be influencing the water system. A test station based on the use of daphnia instead of trout will also be designed and constructed. Daphnia as a test species offer several advantages in terms of lower costs, smaller system size, and reduced ethics issues.