Novel biomarkers for neurotoxicity

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The over arching goal of our research program is to develop early warning markers for measuring adverseeffects of environmental contaminants on ecosystem health. Environmental exposure just above backgroundlevels rarely leads to observable immediate effects. Slow, insidious changes in biological functions, reflectingdiminished wellbeing, are more common. We have spent the last five years developing, evaluating andvalidating the use of a number of neurochemical parameters involved in the dopaminergic and muscariniccholinergic nervous systems as biomarkers for the neurotoxicity of methylmercury (MeHg) and otherenvironmental chemicals. We now have a series of neurochemical and neurofunctional tests for wildlife andhuman population studies. The objectives of the next five year program are to understand the underlyingmolecular mechanisms and to evaluate the physiological and ecological consequences of these effects.Our approach of studying the same endpoints in keystone mammalian species (including human) is novel andrelevant. We also have the capacity to use the findings from cutting-edge basic experiments for appliedwildlife and epidemiological studies. Our results may be used to establish thresholds for ecosystem healthmanagement purposes.