Metal Works
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Greg Mayer's zebrafish research has the potential to help set environmental limits and find thresholds for certain chemicals  in food, water and consumer products.

Through the ages, arsenic has been known as a potent poison. More recently, it's been determined to be a human carcinogen, yet it's unclear how this element causes cancer.

"By uncovering the mechanisms underlying arsenic-induced carcinogenesis, we will be able to make better judgments regarding such varied subjects as human intake limits and what types of treatment regimes could ameliorate environmental problems," says University of Maine toxicologist Greg Mayer.

Mayer came to UMaine two years ago from postdoctoral work at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, where he studied the zinc homeostasis and heavy metal toxicology in the squirrelfish, a coral reef species that has phenomenal zinc metabolism capabilities. His work there focused on a novel promoter region (a molecular on/off switch) of metallothionein, a protein that binds heavy metals. At Miami, Mayer also developed transgenic zebrafish as a tool to understand how exposure to metals alters expression of a cell's DNA.

Currently, Mayer is using wild type and transgenic zebrafish in several other contexts in his laboratory. These include investigations of the role of metal responsive transcription factors during embryo development.