Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID NM_2024_Li_NMSU

Evaluating PFAS ecotoxicity using zebrafish in vivo and in vitro experiments

Institute: New Mexico
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $20,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $20,000

Principal Investigators: Runwei Li

Project Summary: The occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water resources leads to significant health risks to humans and ecosystems. The recent detection of elevated PFAS in New Mexico groundwater and surface waters indicated the contamination in the precious water resources in the state and demonstrated the urgent need for PFAS toxicity investigations. Results from our current NM-WRRI project suggested that both traditional long-chain PFAS and their novel alternatives can cause adverse health effects to zebrafish embryo. This project will leverage our resources and findings from the current project and further discuss the PFAS-induced toxicity in zebrafish with experiments in both live zebrafish and zebrafish cell line.