Tier II Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Toxicology and Stress Physiology

目前，对威胁水生生态系统的化学应激源的影响的了解仅限于暴露发生期间或之后不久发生的影响。然而，关于暴露在这些污染物中对生物种群健康的长期影响(包括多代影响)，人们知之甚少，特别是鱼类。通过表征鱼类对化学应激源的长期毒性反应的细胞机制，包括表观基因组的变化，有可能开发出将显著改进调节毒性测试方法的工具，并减少对栖息在加拿大淡水生态系统中的鱼类物种进行化学和环境风险评估的不确定性。

Currently, understanding of effects of chemical stressors that threaten aquatic ecosystems is limited to those that occur during or shortly after an exposure took place. However, very little is known regarding long-term (including multigenerational) impacts that exposure to these contaminants has on the health of populations of organisms, particularly fish. By characterizing cellular mechanisms of long-term toxic responses, including alterations to the epigenome, of fishes to chemical stressors it is possible to develop tools that will significantly improve regulatory toxicity testing approaches and decrease uncertainty in chemical and environmental risk assessments for species of fishes that inhabit Canadian freshwater ecosystems.