David E. Hinton

Bio and Research:

Chronic toxicity in small, aquarium fish species. Using a mutant medaka (Oryzias latipes) that expresses no pigment, we are able to image internal organs in the intact living individual. Transgenic organisms are being developed to enhance our ability to discern disease processes within living fish of all life stages. Special projects include: 1 R01 RR18583-01 (NIH,NCRR) The compressed life cycle of the medaka, when coupled with its transparent features, makes this model particularly well suited to study post-embryonic development, aging, toxicity, mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. Particularly important is a model for evaluating manifestations of early life stage exposure where initial molecular derangement may be separated from adult dysfunction by long intervals. 01-HHE-4A (Water Environmental Research Foundation) "Use of Japanese medaka as an online screening platform for evaluation of potable waters"- Waste water intended for direct or indirect potable reuse has been highly treated to efficiently remove organic and inorganic contaminants. This biomonitoring platform will center on medaka as biosensors testing water for undesirable effects due to contaminant(s) or to purification chemicals or their interaction(s). We are also using this model to test the efficacy of new methods to break down chemicals in sewage treatment. Other studies to evaluate hepatobiliary toxicity during preclinical development of chemotherapeutic drugs are planned and funding sought. We anticipate this model can be employed as both a rapid screen for optimization of the lead molecule series selection in drug development (i.e., acute toxicity studies) but also for long-term studies that seek to determine adult consequences of early life stage toxicity.