AquaTox Research Facility

最近内陆水域和流域环境质量的下降导致加拿大、跨界五大湖地区和世界许多地区淡水有害藻华(HAB)的发生频率增加。一些淡水赤潮会产生神经和肝脏毒素，对人类健康构成威胁，其他化合物会导致皮疹和鱼类死亡。NSERC的这笔RTI赠款将用于购买设备，以支持硕士和博士生进行的研究，以及由NSERC发现赠款、NSERC水生生态系统服务战略网络赠款(Creed领导健康森林，健康水生生态系统主题)和两个NSERC创建的(包括通过科学、技术和教育-减少藻类水华评估)资助的PDF(Creed是牵头PI)。所要求的设备将为重点研究淡水赤潮的生产力和毒素产生的研究提供能力。这些设施是“关键任务”--需要工具能力来支持由成功的主要赠款支持的大量总部基地项目。所要求的NSERC RTI设备包括用于制备试剂和培养基的高质量水系统；用于生态毒理学研究的两个培养箱；用于ELISA测量已知毒素和开发新型细胞毒性评估的平板阅读器；用于营养分析的模块化荧光计；用于测量细胞生物量的模块化荧光计；以及定制的流动注射分析系统，用于分析铁和活性氧，这两个因素对于推进关于蓝藻生长的新假设至关重要。有些设备可能被认为是标准设备，但它们反映了我们推进发现的迫切需要。AquaTox研究基金将提供设备，使我们能够专注于对社会需求影响最大的研究领域：检测淡水赤潮的方法；已知和新毒素的特征；检测引发淡水赤潮的环境因素的方法；土地利用与淡水赤潮之间的关系；以及基于科学原理减少淡水赤潮的战略。

Recent declines in the environmental quality of inland waters and watersheds have led to an increased frequency of freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Canada, the trans-border Great Lakes region, and many areas of the world. Some freshwater HABs produce nerve and liver toxins, posing a risk to human health, and other compounds contribute to skin rashes and fish kills. This NSERC RTI grant will be used to purchase equipment to support research conducted by MSc and PhD students and PDFs funded through NSERC Discovery Grants, an NSERC Strategic Network Grant on Aquatic Ecosystem Services (Creed leads the Healthy Forests, Healthy Aquatic Ecosystems theme), and two NSERC CREATEs (including Algal Bloom Assessment through Science, Technology and Education - ABATE) (Creed is the lead PI). The requested equipment will provide capacity for research focusing on productivity and toxin production studies of freshwater HABs. The facilities are "mission critical" - the instrumental capacity is needed to support the large number of HQP supported by the successful major grants. The NSERC RTI equipment requested includes a high quality water system for preparation of reagents and media; two incubators for ecotoxicological studies; a plate reader for ELISA measurements of known toxins and developing novel cytotoxicity assessments; a modular fluorometer set up for nutrient analysis; a modular fluorometer set up for cell biomass measurements; and a custom-built flow-through injection analysis system to analyze iron and reactive oxygen, two factors critical for advancing novel hypotheses on cyanobacterial growth. Some pieces of equipment may be considered standard, but they reflect a critical need for our advancement of discovery. The AquaTox Research Facility will provide equipment that will enable us to focus on areas of research that have the strongest impact on the needs of society: methods to detect freshwater HABs; characterization of known and novel toxins; methods to detect environmental factors that initiate freshwater HABs; relationships between land-use and freshwater HABs; and strategies to reduce freshwater HABs based on scientific principles.