NIEHS workshop: unique marine/freshwater models for environmental health research.

This NIEHS-sponsored workshop highlighted the advances in environmental health research being made by using marine and freshwater model systems to add greater definition to the roles of genetic and environmental factors in disease. Workshop participants considered human health problems, features of marine and freshwater models that facilitate studies of these problems, and obstacles to taking full advantage of these models. Cancer, developmental defects, and neurological disorders affecting humankind are being clarified by studies that use these model systems to probe the genetic and environmental components of disease. The features of the models that facilitate these studies include simplicity, relatively low cost to generate statistically valid results, wide range of sensitivities, short development times, and ease of generating and maintaining useful mutant or genetically engineered strains. The primary obstacles to be overcome are lack of institutional infrastructure and lack of appreciation among the scientific community of the advantages inherent in use of these models. Workshop participants recommended the creation of localized supportive infrastructure and regional centers of expertise to train and educate researchers in the use of these models, and the communication of these results. Organized by the five NIEHS Marine/ Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Centers, the workshop convened at the NIEHS Conference Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, on 20-21 April 1998. Educators, researchers, students, physicians, and adminis-