Effort launched to better characterize linkage between bioassays and biological impacts in fish

Posted May 4, 2018

SCCWRP and its partners are launching a new round of exploratory work on bioanalytical cell screening technology to better understand how these assays can be adapted to provide early evidence that bioactive chemical contaminants in aquatic environments are potentially triggering adverse biological impacts in fish.

Researchers’ goal is to understand the relationship, or linkage, between how bioanalytical assays respond to exposure to bioactive CECs, and how living fish respond to exposure to the same contaminant levels. This work will pave the way for developing bioscreening thresholds for endocrine-disruptor cell assays that are sufficiently protective of fish health.

Researchers have begun planning a laboratory exposure study that will better define the linkage between an assay known as the glucocorticoid receptor assay, and corresponding biological impacts to the estuarine silverside fish species Menidia beryllina. Glucocorticoids are a class of endocrine-disrupting CECs commonly found in aquatic systems that can adversely impact metabolism and growth of juvenile silversides.

Separately, researchers in May will launch a field exposure study that will track biological impacts to fathead minnow fish from exposure to CECs. The fish will be exposed to flowing Los Angeles River water in real time by housing them in mobile exposure chambers set up along the riverbank.


More news related to: Bioanalytical Cell Screening Assays, Emerging Contaminants