gene expression

Silages are of great importance in animal farm forage. In Belgium, it represents the base of the cattle forage during winter, and partly during summer as well. There are different crops used for ensilage such as whole corn plant, CCM (corn cob mix), grass, sugarbeet pulp, etc. More recently, ensilaging of immature cereals has recieved increasing interest due to the low prices of grain cereals, especially of wheat and barley.

Anthropogenic as well as naturally occurring contaminants are present in our environment, for example mycotoxins and pesticides are typical food contaminants, metals and pesticides are common polluters of water and sediment. To determine the potential hazards of the individual compounds and mixtures and evaluate their toxicity different types of tests have been developed. In recent years advances in the use of in vitro cellular systems made it possible to characterise events at one of the earliest levels of molecular responses: gene expression. This research project uses E. coli and a human liver cell based stress gene profiling assays to determine the effect of chemicals and mixtures thereof on stress gene activation. The stress promoters used in these assays control transcription of genes involved in stress-related processes such as DNA damage, oxidative stress, osmotic stress, protein perturbation and tumour induction.

This study investigates the importance of water and food as exposure sources of copper to zebrafish. (Danio rerio) It is explored to what extend uptake via water or food results in different responses and toxic effects.

Validation of bacterial and human cell line based stress gene induction assays for the detection of foodborne contaminants.

During the production and after therapeutic use pharmaceutical compounds can enter the aquatic environment through industrial and household discharges. Indeed, pharmaceuticals are continually released into the environment wherever humans live. But until recently, very little attention has been paid on what happens to these these compounds after their administration or use. Human pharmaceuticals have ‘enjoyed’ several decades of unrestricted discharge to the environment. Over the last decade, the increasing number of reports on the occurrence of human pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment has raised public concern on the environmental risk of these compounds. The big unknown however, is whether the presence of low concentrations of human pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment can cause a serious threat. Currently, very little is known on the potential adverse effects of human pharmaceuticals on aquatic organisms, and there is a great need for relevant and specific ecotoxicological effect data in order to correctly assess the environmental risk of pharmaceutical compounds.