Anybody need free use of a testing lab?

[angam]

I work at an aquatic environmental toxicity laboratory that involves mainly industrial effluent and chemical testing. Organisms we work with include larval fish, water fleas and other small invertebrates. Occasionally there is some R&D work but for the most part, it's the standard routine permit testing going on. So while I've had a fair share of experience setting up and conducting these kinds of toxicity tests, maybe it's good to try new things.

I was wondering if anyone had some ideas for or would like to partner in conducting toxicity testing. Oftentimes we have unused, leftover organisms that could otherwise be used for testing. I could setup and conduct the testing following appropriate protocols and provide the data to you. I hope it could be a mutually beneficial thing as I would gain some new experience and professional development, and someone could gain the use of an aquatic toxicity laboratory that they may not have access to. My time would be free of charge, and of course I would get approval of the lab first (so it's not some shady back-room setup).

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Possibilities are something like there's a new market product you'd like to investigate the potential toxicological effects of, or testing the effects or a certain metal in combination with other factors. Or just any advice to someone trying to expand beyond the routine lab testing/reporting life is great too.

My apologies if I seem callous with offering up these organisms for testing; we often end up with extra ones as mentioned and these would be discarded usually immediately if not used. We follow animal care guidelines and dispose of all organisms in a most humane method possible.

Thanks!

[CharonY]

Well, my interests would be more in the area of molecular toxicity, which involves molecular (e.g. transcriptomic/proteomic) analyses of toxic effects. I am not sure how feasible such a setup in this context would be, though.

[angam]

One thing we have done is send out tissue for analysis for any bioaccumulation effects. But I haven't dealt with anything at the molecular level. One thing that I've always found interesting is to see how a potential toxin would affect an organism over successive generations- sub-lethal effects perhaps at the molecular level. But yes, such analyses would be difficult to implement without further effort on my part!

[CharonY]

Funnily I often get sent those tissues sent for analyses (mostly RNA or proteins). Unfortunately many collaborators do not set up the tox test properly, resulting in results that are hard to interpret.