Research summary
The numbers and levels of contaminants in our environment have risen dramatically over the last decade. To address the associated environmental and health risks, there is an urgent need to systematically characterize these complex cocktails of contaminants and determine their toxicity to aquatic and terrestrial organisms.
As Canada Research Chair in Ecotoxicogenomics and Endocrine Disruption, Dr. Valérie Langlois is using state-of-the-art methods in comparative ecotoxicogenomics and endocrinology to determine how these contaminants (alone and in mixtures) affect animal and ecosystem health, from the molecular to population levels. (Ecotoxicogenomics looks at an ecological organism’s entire set of genes or protein expression to shed light on environmental toxicity, while endocrinology studies an organism’s hormones.) Ultimately, Langlois and her research team hope to help Canada’s policy-makers to better manage the risks of contaminants to environmental health.