Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health

伍兹霍尔海洋与人类健康中心的使命是通过进一步了解包括气候变化在内的海洋和环境过程如何影响产生毒素的生物体的种群动态，以及接触其强效力神经毒素的风险，来保护公众健康。影响有害藻华（HAB）物种分布、生存、增殖和毒性的因素仍然知之甚少，尽管它们对人类健康造成巨大影响。中心由三个研究项目和两个核心组成。中心的结构将促进项目之间的整合，并将研究与教育和社区参与活动相结合。该中心将与持份者合作，在多个学术层面促进有害藻华的科学教育，并加强公众对有害藻华及其影响的认识。该中心由美国国家科学基金会和国家环境健康科学研究所（NIEHS）共同支持。该中心的研究活动将集中在两个关键的HAB类群上：产生导致麻痹性贝类中毒（PSP）的蛤蚌毒素的fundyense Alexandrium，以及产生导致失忆性贝类中毒（ASP）综合征的软骨藻酸的pseudonitzschia sp。由申请人开发并在现场应用的新颖、有针对性、高效和数据丰富的采样方法表明，在自然环境中，金叶松动态的关键方面与实验室研究推断的有很大不同，表明了对气候的可塑性响应。拟议的研究将建立在这些新的和基本的见解上，了解是什么控制了藻华，以及该中心在海洋观测技术和建模方面的既定优势，以预测环境变量如何影响已知和新出现的有害藻华威胁的种群动态。将后播模拟与缅因湾的气候数据记录进行比较，将评估模型的性能和不确定性。对一系列潜在气候情景的预测有助于量化未来的公共卫生风险。同样，在发育中的大脑中已经发现了特定的细胞，这些细胞是HAB毒素的目标，这些发现为发育毒理学机制提供了见解。这些将指导研究，以解决毒素对发育中的中枢神经系统的影响范围，潜在地将发育暴露与成人后果联系起来。毒素作用新机制的研究将包括确定在斑马鱼模型的不同生命阶段，联合或反复暴露于亚致死水平的蛤蚌毒素和软骨藻酸的影响，以及可能的无声神经毒性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The mission of the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health is to protect the public health through enhanced understanding of how oceanic and environmental processes including climatic variation affect the population dynamics of toxin producing organisms, and the risks from exposure to their potent neurotoxins. Factors affecting the distribution, survival, proliferation, and toxicity of harmful algal bloom (HAB) species still are poorly known, despite their enormous consequences for human health. Three research projects and two cores comprise the Center. The Center structure will facilitate the integration among projects, and the integration of research with education and community engagement activities. The Center will engage stakeholders, facilitate education on HAB science at many academic levels, and strengthen public knowledge about HAB blooms and their impacts. The Center is jointly supported by NSF and by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).The research activities of the Center will focus on two key HAB taxa: Alexandrium fundyense that produces the saxitoxins responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), and Pseudo-nitzschia spp. that produce domoic acid responsible for the amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) syndrome. Novel, targeted, efficient, and data-rich sampling approaches developed by the applicants and applied in situ have revealed that critical aspects of A. fundyense dynamics in natural settings differ dramatically from those inferred from laboratory studies, indicating plasticity in response to climate. The research proposed will build on these new and fundamental insights into what regulates blooms, and on the Center's established strengths in ocean observation technologies and modeling, to predict how environmental variables may influence population dynamics of known and emerging HAB threats. Hindcast simulations compared with climate data records in the Gulf of Maine will assess model performance and uncertainty. Forecasts run for a range of potential climate scenarios can help quantify future public health risks. Similarly, specific cells have been identified in the developing brain that are targets of HAB toxins, findings giving insights into developmental toxicological mechanisms. These will guide studies to address the scope of toxin effect in the developing central nervous system, potentially linking developmental exposures to adult consequences. Studies of new mechanisms of toxin action will include determination of the effects of combined or repeated exposure to sub-lethal levels of saxitoxin and domoic acid, and possible silent neurotoxicity, at different life stages in the zebrafish model.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.