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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Assessing the neurotoxic potential of environmental 
 contaminants using the zebrafish model"
DTSTART:20211130T121500
DTEND:20211130T131500
DTSTAMP:20260528T093009Z
UID:052ef8dfb351e5fb402217c628fd10d7cf8920b0e650d0254f8b0855
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Colette vom Berg\, Assistant Professor Tenure Track\, Group
  leader\, Department of Environmental Toxicology\, EAWAG\nAbstract:\nThe i
 ncreasing occurrence of contaminants such as insecticides\, personal care 
 products or pharmaceuticals in our water system has become an environmenta
 l issue of global concern. Their toxic potential poses a threat not only t
 o human health but also to aquatic organisms. In fact\, fish populations d
 ecline while the reasons are not well understood and anthropogenic environ
 mental pollution likely plays a significant role. Chemical interference wi
 th the nervous system potentially alters behavioral responses such as mati
 ng\, predator avoidance or feeding\, resulting in reduced survival chances
  of an animal. However\, the assessment of the neurotoxicity of chemicals 
 so far is limited to few compounds and target organisms. Hence\, there is
  a great demand for the mechanistic understanding of the neurotoxic potent
 ial of these environmental pollutants and for the development of meaningfu
 l methods for the assessment of neurotoxicity. Understanding the mechanism
  underlying a chemically-induced change in behavior is essential for toxic
 ology in order to better predict the risk a contaminant poses on the envir
 onment beyond an immediately lethal concentration as usually assessed in c
 lassical toxicology. Moreover\, identifying molecular targets of contamina
 nts might also result in finding potential indicators\, which can be used 
 to monitor the health of natural populations or for the development of in 
 vitro assays.\nWe are investigating molecular and neuronal mechanistic und
 erpinnings by which environmental contaminants affect the fish nervous sys
 tem and behavior. Using the zebrafish as a model\, we are tackling how ins
 ecticides with different modes of action influence space use\, locomotor b
 ehavior\, neuromuscular development as well as the potential to recover fr
 om behavioral impairments. Moreover\, we are assessing the impact of neuro
 active pharmaceuticals on horizontal and vertical behavior and tackle mole
 cular pathways underlying inter-individual differences. In this seminar\, 
 I will give an overview on our latest research results.\n\nShort biography
 :\nColette vom Berg is a tenure-track group leader in Molecular Toxicology
  in the Department of Environmental Toxicology at Eawag since 2016. She st
 udied biology at the University of Basel and received her PhD on visual si
 gnalling in zebrafish from the Institute of Molecular Life Science at the 
 University of Zürich in 2010. She was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institu
 te for Medical Research in Heidelberg Germany\, working on the processing 
 of environmental stressors in the zebrafish brain. At Eawag\, her research
  group is investigating neuroactive substances and their molecular mechani
 sms of action using behavioral\, imaging and molecular approaches in the z
 ebrafish.
LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/63900222242?pwd=OXluejhzTklCbkdWakkvaUFCSG
 Vndz09
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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