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Bioassays for Evaluating Water Quality: Screening for total bioactivity to assess water safety
Citation:
Wilson, V., A. Biales, J. Simmons, Dan Villeneuve, C. Impellitteri, AND M. Latham. Bioassays for Evaluating Water Quality: Screening for total bioactivity to assess water safety. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Washington, DC, EPA/600/F-18/048, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
To share information about EPA's bioassay research.
Description:
Bioassays are a potential solution for assessing complex samples since they screen for total bioactivity for a given pathway or mode of action (MOA), such as estrogen receptor activation, in the samples. Overall, they can account for the three challenges listed above, and can simplify complex samples by reducing them to a few activated biological pathways or MOA. EPA has made considerable progress in the development of these assays as effects-based monitoring tools, and has applied them in a growing number of water quality assessments.