The UMESC built a team of professionals including fish biologists, chemists, fish culturists, physiologists, general biologists, statisticians, and a quality assurance officer to address the objectives and coordinate the Project. Each person is considered an expert in their particular specialty field. Because the drugs will be used on a human food source, each person was trained and certified to implement FDA's Good Laboratory Practice guidelines. These group of professionals efficiently conduct studies to address research in the following areas (technical sections):

1. Human Food Safety - a series of toxicity and residue chemistry studies conducted to determine if fillets from treated fish are safe to eat.
   
2. Target Animal Safety - studies conducted to determine the drug's impact on the general health of fish during the coarse of treatment.
   
3. Efficacy - studies conducted to define a treatment regimen that will cure diseased fish, or in the case of an anesthetic, a treatment regimen that will safely anesthetize fish.
   
4. Environmental Safety - studies conducted to determine the drug's impact on aquatic biota after the drug is released from a fish culture facility into the adjacent aquatic environment.
   
   

Facility Capabilities

There are four major laboratory areas within the aquaculture drug research and development program: analytical chemistry, radio-isotope research, aquatic in-life research, and fish culture.  These facility capabilities combine to allow us to address many complex projects.

Analytical Chemistry

The analytical chemistry group is equipped with state-of-the art analytical equipment that can detect chemicals at very low levels (parts per trillion).  The analytical equipment used for detection of chemicals includes a high pressure liquid chromatographs (LC), mass spectrometer (MS) and spectrophotometers.  The laboratory is also equipped with many essential pieces of equipment such as rotary evaporators, analytical balances, centrifuges, fume hoods, solid phase extraction units, and ultracold freezers.  In addition, we have an environmental chamber that allows researchers to conduct a variety of acute and chronic studies with fish, Daphnia magna or other test organisms in a controlled environment.

360° Panorama of Analytical Laboratory

Radio-isotope Chemistry

The radio-isotope chemistry group is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for analyzing radio-isotopes.  The analytical equipment used for detection of radio-isotopes consists of a LC equipped with a radiomatic detector, a liquid scintillation counter and a thin layer chromatography imaging system. The laboratory is also equipped with many essential pieces of equipment such as a sample oxidizer and a radioactivity survey meter. The UMESC maintains a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to use radio-isotopes in research.  The license allows researchers to conduct unique human food safety studies that are critical to a drug approval data package.

In-life Research

The in-life research group is equipped with a spacious wet laboratory area that allow researchers to fabricate virtually any test system required to complete their experimental designs.  Test water composition can be altered using reconstituted water holding tanks plumbed to our experimental chambers.  The test water temperature can range from 7 – 30 ºC with the aid of large volume chiller units or electronic mixing valves to meet our research needs.  Basic laboratory equipment such as dissolved oxygen meters, pH meters, balances, and microscopes are required to monitor the test system during the studies.  We also have computer-controlled sondes which can monitor water quality 24/7.

Fish Culture

UMESC is equipped with an expansive aquaculture facility specifically designed for rearing a wide variety of fish species for our research needs.  The culture facility has both indoor culture tanks and egg hatching equipment and outdoor raceways and ponds.  Fish can be raised from eggs to adult (market size) fish.  In addition to culturing fish, the facility has expanded to raising D. magna, American eel, mud puppies and other amphibians or invertebrates as needed.  Invasive species are also maintained in a specifically designed containment area that prevents the release of these organisms.  The diverse test organisms available to the researchers allow them to design many unique studies at various life stages.

• 360° Panorama
  • Aquatic Invasive Species Laboratory
  • Fish Culture Area