Saving Nemo: Reducing animal use in toxicity assessments of wastewater

每天，澳大利亚人产生约50亿升的废水，其中含有一种化学混合物。排放废水的行业被要求通过进行全动物直接毒性评估(DTA)来评估对接收环境的化学风险，这一评估成本高昂，并构成伦理困境。我们的初步研究表明，新的体外生物测定提供了一种伦理和成本效益高的替代方案，如果它们的生态相关性能够得到证明，就可以纳入DTA计划。该项目将开发和验证一套新的、具有国际意义的体外生物分析方法，用于纳入DTA计划，从而实现更符合道德、更具成本效益和更好的环境保护。

Every day, Australians produce ~5 billion litres of wastewater, which contains a cocktail of chemicals. Industries that discharge wastewater are required to assess chemical risks to the receiving environments by conducting whole animal direct toxicity assessments (DTA), which are expensive and pose an ethical dilemma. Our preliminary research shows that new in vitro bioassays provide an ethical and cost effective alternative that could be incorporated into DTA programs if their ecological relevance can be demonstrated. This project will develop and validate a new and internationally significant suite of in vitro bioassays for incorporation into DTA programs, leading to more ethical, cost effective and improved environmental protection.