Funding Type: EPA STRIVE Programme 2007 - 2013
Funding Year: 2007
Project Duration: 5 years
Project Type: Capacity Building - DERP
Total Grant-aid: €700,000
Lead Partner: Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
Project Summary:
This project shall concentrate on developing novel biomarkers in bivalve mussels (Mytilus edulis & Dreissena polymorpha) to investigate chronic effects of exposure to novel environmental contaminants, particularly pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), using recently developed proteomic and genomic techniques. The recent addition of a state of the art liquid chromatography, 2-D Gel ElSctrophoresis and imaging system to the lab will greatly aid this research. The research team shall also be identifying and quantifying numerous pharmaceutical compounds including non-steroidal antiinflamatories, antibiotics, lipid regulators, anti-convulsants and beta-blockers) and EDCs (numerous xenoestrogens and oestradiol) in treated effluent (municipal, hospital & industrial), receiving waters (freshwater and marine) and measuring their ability to bioconcentrate and bioaccumulate up the food chain and their potential effect on human populations.
For further information on the EPA STRIVE Programme see, www.epa.ie