| Exploiting Genome Data to Understand the Function, Regulation, and Evolutionary Origins of Toxicologically Relevant Genes Nazzareno Ballatori,1,2 James L. Boyer,2,3
and John C. Rockett4 1Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester
School of Medicine, Rochester, New York, USA; 2Mount Desert
Island Biological Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, Maine, USA; 3Liver
Center, Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, Connecticut, USA; 4Reproductive Toxicology Division,
National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office
of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA Abstract
The wealth of new information coming from the many genome sequencing projects is providing unprecedented opportunities for major advances in all areas of biology, including the environmental health sciences. To facilitate this discovery process, experts in the fields of functional genomics and informatics and the emerging field of toxicogenomics recently gathered at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, Maine, site of a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Science Center, to share their ideas and latest research findings. The goal of the symposium was to highlight approaches that may be used to identify and characterize toxicologically relevant genes being discovered in the genome sequencing projects. Many of the approaches rely heavily on comparative models as a way of identifying gene homology, ontology, and physiologic function, and on the availability of databases that facilitate storage, analysis, interpretation, and widespread dissemination of relevant data. Key words: comparative genomics, databases, mechanisms of toxicity, nontraditional animal models, toxicogenomics. Environ Health Perspect 111:871-875 (2003) .
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