Note: As of 2022, the former Animal Alternatives in ERA and Bioaccumulation Committees have merged to form the Next Generation ERA Committee
The mission of the HESI Development of Methods for a Tiered Approach to Assess the Bioaccumulation of Chemicals Committee is to develop the tools needed for assessing the potential bioaccumulation of organic chemicals.
This working group is exploring the state of the science on biotransformation and toxicokinetics in birds. A literature review on bird bioaccumulation and biotransformation was funded by the committee and completed by Dr. Dave Kuo (City University of Hong Kong/Kuo Research and Consulting). This review involved evaluation of >550 peer-reviewed studies resulting in a database of >25,000 data entries on >700 organic compounds for nearly 500 wild and domestic bird species. Dr. Kuo is now leading the development of a manuscript to describe this effort, establish the state of the science in the field, and provide recommendations for future research.
This working group is exploring the state of the science of biotransformation and toxicokinetics of organic chemicals in aquatic invertebrates. A literature compilation was conducted for 11 genera of invertebrates. The literature is currently being reviewed and biotransformation and toxicokinetics data are being extracted and stored in a database. This work, funded by the committee, is being conducted at the University of Hong Kong by two of Dr. Dave Kuo’s students.
The committee held an expert workshop in October 2019 on fish biotransformation in bioaccumulation, aimed at identifying short-, medium-, and long-term needs for research and coordination in this space. Approximately 35 experts from industry, academia, and government attended, and several publications and research programs will be initiated in the coming months. The committee will work to identify feasible next steps for additional data generation and analysis over the next year related to fish biotransformation and toxicokinetics. The group is preparing a manuscript on the current use and application of the in vitro test method.
Michelle Embry received her PhD in Toxicology in 2004 and her BS in Biology and Environmental Science and Policy in 1998 from Duke University. She is currently the Deputy Director of Environmental Science at HESI, where she provides leadership, technical direction, and guidance to varied, multi-stakeholder, collaborative committees on topics related to risk assessment and environmental protection worldwide.
Prior to joining HESI in 2006, Dr. Embry worked as an Ecological Risk Assessor at the US EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. She has expertise in both human health and ecotoxicology, with an emphasis on integrated approaches and alternative methods. Her current project portfolio includes the Animal Alternatives in Environmental Risk Assessment Committee and the Development of Methods for a Tiered Approach to Assess Bioaccumulation of Chemicals Committee, two of HESI’s projects aimed at improving ecological risk assessment. Dr. Embry’s work also includes the Risk Assessment in the 21st Century (RISK21) Committee, which developed a scientific, transparent, and efficient approach for human health risk assessment, including a web-based tool that has led to outreach and training activities on risk assessment approaches worldwide. In addition, she works with HESI staff and partners on project development related to chemical risk assessment issues.
Dr. Embry is an elected member of the SETAC North America Board of Directors (2014 to present), chair of the SETAC Global Partners Advisory Committee, and a member of the SETAC Bioaccumulation and Animal Alternatives Advisory Group Steering Teams. She is a full member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and a member of the SOT Risk Assessment and Mixtures Specialty Sections. She was a member of the ECETOC Task Force on Information to be Considered in a Weight-of-Evidence-Based PBT/vPvB Assessment of Chemicals (Annex XIII of REACH) in 2013 to 2014 and was a steering team member of the SETAC Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) Pellston Workshop (Spring 2017). Dr. Embry is also one of the founding partners on the “eco data hub” initiative, started in Fall 2016.
Sandrine Deglin joined HESI in 2018 as a Scientific Program Manager. Prior to joining HESI, she worked with the Environmental Public Health Program at the State of Alaska Division of Public Health for four years, where she managed the program for nearly two years. Prior to that time, Dr. Deglin spent seven years as a consultant in the Toxicology and Mechanistic Biology Group of Exponent, Inc.
Dr. Deglin holds a PhD in Applied Chemistry and an MS in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. While studying in France, she also received a MS in Chemistry and a postgraduate degree in Public Health. Dr. Deglin is interested in all aspects of environmental health, including chemical fate and transport, toxicology, epidemiology, risk assessment, food safety and food security, and risk communication. She is currently involved in the HESI Bioaccumulation, Environmental Epidemiology, RISK21, UVCB, and Transforming the Evaluation of Agrochemicals (TEA) Committees.
FMC Corporation
Kuo Research and Consulting
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Givaudan Schweiz AG
Roskilde University
University of Oslo
US Environmental Protection Agency
German Environment Agency (UBA)
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2012
An approach for comparing laboratory and field measures of bioaccumulation is presented to facilitate the interpretation of different sources of bioaccumulation data.
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2012
Once they are released into the environment, a number of chemicals are known to bioaccumulate in organisms, sometimes to concentrations that may threaten the individual or their predators.
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2012
Recent technical workgroups have concluded that trophic magnification factors (TMFs) are useful in characterizing the bioaccumulation potential of a chemical, because TMFs provide a holistic measure of biomagnification in food webs.
Current Protocols in Toxicology, 2012
Standard protocols are given for assessing metabolic stability in rainbow trout using the liver S9 fraction.
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2012
In the regulatory context, bioaccumulation assessment is often hampered by substantial data uncertainty as well as by the poorly understood differences often observed between results from laboratory and field bioaccumulation studies.
Chemical Research in Toxicology, 2011
Binding of hydrophobic chemicals to colloids such as proteins or lipids is difficult to measure using classical microdialysis methods due to low aqueous concentrations, adsorption to dialysis membranes and test vessels, and slow kinetics of equilibration.
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