Mar. 30, 2020 20:17 GMT
Over the past 20 years, concentrations of pharmaceuticals have increased in freshwater sources around the world. Levels of some antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin have reached the point of causing “harmful ecological effects”. The DCU Water Institute is leading the EMPIRE project to assess the effects of pharmaceuticals on surface water basins in Ireland. This project uses chemically validated bioassays conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and PhD students.
This project evaluates the applicability of in vivo and in vitro bioassays of complex drug mixtures or low doses of pharmaceuticals of interest on cell cultures. The research is based on a life cycle analysis of pharmaceuticals, and data on the presence of pharmaceuticals in surface waters to determine their effects on biological communities.
Here is a video of Dylan OFlynn, a master’s student at the DCU Water Institute, giving an overview of the EMPIRE project: