Final Report Summary - TOXKINBIO (Toxicokinetics and biotransformation in aquatic invertebrates)
This work improved our understanding of hwat happens to pharmaceuticals in the environment. We learned about how different freshwater species (a snail, a shrimp and water flea) take up pharmaceuticals, metabolise and transfrom them and then excrete them. The main finding is that there are surprisingly big differences between the species. Also we found that some pharmaceuticals are metabolised a lot and others much less so. This helps to assess the risks of pharmaceuticals in the environment and can inform design of environmentally friendly drugs. Thus it is of interest to industry and policy makers.