Oceanography and environmental sciences at Miami.

is the fifth in a series that appears intermittently in NIEHS News. The series highlights the activities of Environmental Health Sciences and Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Centers. The first article in the series appeared in volume 101, number 7. Stationed on the white sands ofVirginia Key overlooking Biscayne Bay, the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences is home to the University of Miami's Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center. The center is joindy funded by the NIEHS and the University of Miami, and serves as a focal point for marine-related health issues for the temperate United States, Central and South America, and the Caribbean basin. The center plays a leading role in research on natural seafood toxins, and with the advent of seafood safety legislation in early 1995, research at the center is critical in providing a science-based approach to seafood safety. The Rosenstiel School has been involved in research related to the tropical and subtropical oceans and atmosphere, its flora and fauna, since its creation in 1943; it is the third largest oceanographic institution in the United States. The UM MFBS Center has funded programs to investigate the use of marine species as models of I human diseases, molecular mechanisms and orphan receptors relating to marine toxins, neurophysiology, metabolism, and immunology. The UM MFBS is the newest of five marine centers and is directed by Daniel G. Baden. Associate directors are Patrick Walsh and David Adams. The center fosters collaboration among eight investigators from four university departments , with ten scientists carrying out pilot projects. Four center postdoctoral fellows provide additional expertise in selected research areas. The collaborations resulting from center activities extend to all campuses of the University of Miami and to colleagues elsewhere in the United States and abroad. Insight to marine models and toxins is often serendipitous, arising from direct observation of the marine environment. Marine organisms react to their environment in much the same way as do humans, and the negative effects of exposure to environmental agents are graphically displayed. For example, the damselfish neu-rofibromatosis model was discovered during diving expeditions to observe the territorial and mating behavior of this fish. A pronounced concentration of fish with neurofibromatosis in certain geographic areas led to the hypothesis that an environmental or infective agent was responsible Lab by the sea. for the disease. This discovery eventually led to the development of a unique model system …