EcoTox TARGET Challenge

Deadline: 2021-06-15
Award: $300,000
Open to: Companies, Institutions, NGOs*

This challenge calls for respondents to develop high quality, low cost, technologies/platforms for evaluating global gene expression in samples from four common aquatic toxicity test organisms: Pimephales promelas (a fish), Daphnia magna (a crustacean), Chironomous dilutus (an insect; formerly Chironomous tentans), and Raphidocelis subcapitata (a green algae).

These represent species and associated trophic levels most frequently tested when evaluating the ecological hazards of chemicals. While there are many extant, viable, technologies for measuring global gene expression, the significant technological leap and challenge to the solver community is to provide these capabilities at a cost and scale of commercial throughput that can accommodate the analysis of thousands or tens of thousands of samples per year. A target price point is $50 per sample or less.