Project Summary (2000-2005)

To assess hazards arising from Superfund sites, project investigators are developing inexpensive and rapid screens for the presence of environmental hazards, for the hazards posed by mixtures of toxins, and to test large numbers of field isolates. To detect genes that are up- or down-regulated in response to toxins, a gene-trapping approach is being used with beta-lactamase as the reporter in cell lines that are relevant to long-term toxicity. Cell lines in which beta-lactamase has trapped a toxin-responsive gene are then used to identify trapped genes by RACE. Several tens of these cell lines are being validated for ultra-high-throughput screening assays to predict the biohazard potential of large numbers of samples (approximately 10⁵ assays/day, consisting of candidate toxicants, mixtures, and field isolates.)