Establishment of the endocrine axes in the embryo and their xenobiotic distortion

每年都有数百万吨被认为无害的化学物质被制造出来并进入环境。然而，这些物质中的一些可以作用于野生动物和人类，扭曲激素系统在胚胎中建立的方式，导致对以后生活的健康和功能的微妙影响。我们将使用这些物质中最常见的一种，在许多化妆品，食品包装和药用塑料中发现，来了解激素系统如何在健康的胚胎中建立，以及这些系统在暴露于这些化合物后是如何扭曲的。该项目直接解决了我们评估环境健康的方式，并提供了筛选可能对野生动物、家养物种和人类产生微妙影响的化合物的方法。

Millions of tons of supposedly harmless chemicals are produced and enter the environment each year. However, some of these substances can act on wildlife and humans to distort the way that hormone systems are established in the embryo, leading to subtle effects on health and function in later life. We will use one of the commonest of these substances, found in many cosmetics, food wrappings, and medicinal plastics, to learn how hormone systems becomes established in a healthy embryo, and how these then get distorted after exposure to these compounds. This project directly addresses the way we assess the health of our environment, and offers ways to screen for compounds which can have subtle effects on wildlife, domestic species and humans.