Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) such as anthropogenic pollutants may have ecological and human health impacts. Therefore, it is extremely important to identify the potential toxic effects of CECs on the exposed organisms and to determine the critical levels of exposure. To this aim, at the ecological level, model species in ecotoxicology and multiple biological responses are employed; instead, to study the hazards posed by CECs to human health, in vitro or in vivo models, depending on the specific effect under investigation, are adopted. CECs are known to alter specific pathways at the epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-translational levels both in humans and animals. In this respect, -omic tools are nowadays considered as platforms to drive hypothesis-based investigations for a better understanding of mechanistic toxicology. These tools can be applied to in vitro models (e.g., established cell lines), and model organisms (e.g., algae, crustaceans, fish, worms, pollinators). Worth of note, bioinformatic analysis of -omic data is crucial for a successful overall characterization of the CECs molecular effects on the biota. The RT aims to:
- assess the environmental impact of relevant CECs (e.g., PFAS) by coupling phenotypic, behavioral, and molecular studies;
- characterize the toxicity mechanism (using -omics approaches) of CECs in model/target species and cell lines.
Five publications related to the Research Topic for the candidate interview:
- Verga J.U., Huff M., Owens D., Wolf B.J., Hardiman G. Integrated Genomic and Bioinformatics Approaches to Identify Molecular Links between Endocrine Disruptors and Adverse Outcomes. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19:574. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010574.
- Li J., Wang L., Zhang X., Liu P., Deji Z., Xing Y., Zhou Y., Lin X., Huang Z. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances exposure and its influence on the intestinal barrier: An overview on the advances. Sci Total Environ. 2022; 852:158362. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158362.
- Koh E.J., Hwang S.Y. Multi-omics approaches for understanding environmental exposure and human health. Mol. Cell. Toxicol. 2019; 15, 1–7. doi: 10.1007/s13273-019-0001-4.
- Kim HJ, Koedrith P, Seo YR. Ecotoxicogenomic approaches for understanding molecular mechanisms of environmental chemical toxicity using aquatic invertebrate, Daphnia model organism. Int J Mol Sci. 2015; 16:12261-87. doi: 10.3390/ijms160612261.
- 4. Saaristo M, Craft JA, Tyagi S, Johnstone CP, Allinson M, Ibrahim KS, Wong BBM. Transcriptome-wide changes associated with the reproductive behaviour of male guppies exposed to 17α-ethinyl estradiol. Environ Pollut. 2021 Feb 1;270:116286. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116286.
- Pierozan P, Cattani D, Karlsson O. Tumorigenic activity of alternative per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Mechanistic in vitro studies. Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 20;808:151945. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151945.
Contact person
Prof. Marianna Pauletto
Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science
University of Padova
tel.: +39-049-8272935
e-mail: marianna.pauletto@unipd.it
