There is rapidly growing scientific evidence that unexpected, unmonitored and
unregulated contaminants are present in the environment. Despite increasing
public concern, risk assessment continues to be based on a limited number
(hundreds) of chemicals, even though hundreds of thousands of industrial
chemicals are produced and sold in Europe. The challenge is particularly evident
when only a small fraction of the measured toxicity of a single environmental
sample can be explained by currently monitored chemicals.
We plan to implement infrastructure which measure comprehensive chemical
fingerprints and in vivo ecotoxicological fingerprints concurrently, to elucidate
which compounds (or compound groups) in a complex sample are bioactive or
cause toxic effects. The novelty of this setup is the ability to measure the chemical
composition and the bioactivity of a complex sample in the same workflow, without
risk of sample contamination or degradation during transport between labs. The
experimental data will be paired with consistent, coherent workflows using
sophisticated data analysis methods to build data libraries and competences,
which will accelerate the identification of unknown bioactive compounds in
environmental samples.
The novelty in the chemical fingerprint is the use of multidimensional
chromatography with ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry, to extend our
current analytical methods. The ecotoxicological fingerprinting will use highthroughput
assays on several whole organism algae and invertebrate test species.
The use of whole organisms allows broader screening of toxicological modes of
action compared to receptor specific in vitro assays. Several invertebrates are
used as surrogate species for vertebrates, as they possess similar biochemical
pathways, and their use aligns with the 3R priorities of industry, academia and
regulatory bodies to replace, reduce and refine vertebrate tests.