Staff Directory › Gary Winston, Ph.D.

Research Goals:

» Cellular oxidative damage to aquatic and marine organisms from exposure to environmental pollutants. Understanding alterations in the balance between cellular formation of reactive ROS and antioxidant defenses. ROS can cause cell damage, including membrane oxidation, DNA damage, inactivation of enzymes and oxidation of proteins.

» Understanding changes in the activity of antioxidant enzymes (e.g. catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidases) and in the levels of water- and lipid-soluble scavengers (e.g. glutathione, ascorbic acid, vitamin E) for use as biomarkers of contaminant-mediated oxidative stress.

»The Total Oxyradical Scavenging Capacity Assay (TOSCA) developed in our laboratory continues to be used world-wide. (Winston, G.W., Regoli, F., Dugas, A.J. Jr., Blanchard, K.A., and Fong, J. (1998) A rapid gas chromatographic assay for determining oxyradical scavenging capacity of antioxidants and biological fluids.  Free Rad. Biol. Med. 24: 480-393; Regoli, F. and Winston, G.W. (1999) Quantification of total oxidant scavenging capacity (TOSC) of antioxidants for peroxynitrite, peroxyl radicals and hydroxyl radicals.  Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., 156: 96-105.)

» Applicability of TOSCA to natural products research and aquatic environmetal toxicology: Characterizing antioxidant properties of natural products such as flavonols, silybin, Ginko Biloba extract, green teas and other herbal remedies. TOSCA has proven valuable for measuring aquatic and marine organisms defenes against prooxidant pollutants.

» Relationship between pollutant exposure and human and ecosystem health by application of the principles of risk assessment, including exposure analysis.

Read Dr. Gary Winston's Curriculum Vitae

Current Research Funded by Lake Erie Protection Fund

 Adult Hexagenia Mayfly

Hexagenia nymph showing
gills on abdomen

Mayfly larva hatching from its egg
(click on image to enlarge)

Burrowing mayfliesof the genus Hexagenia are keystone species in aquatic ecosystems such as the highly productive western Lake Erie basin. When mayflies are abundant, the western basin is healthy and sustains a diverse ecosystem. Declines in the mayfly population are associated with factors that threaten the health of Lake Erie and its economic enterprises such as fishing, swimming, boating and tourism. A probable limiting factor of mayflies is cyanobacterial blooms. MC toxins are known to be toxic to insects, yet the toxicology of MCs to mayflies has not been well studied. Because of its key position in the trophic transfer of this toxin, and as a major food source for game fishes in Lake Erie, knowledge of MC toxicity fills an important void in understanding the relationship between mayfly population flux and cyanobacterial blooms. We will study biochemical stress responses of mayflies (oxidative damage & changes in antioxidant defenses as a function of microcystin (MCs; cyanobacterial toxins) exposure. Protein phosphatase activity, a target enzyme in MC toxicity will be studied under laboratory conditions of mayfly nymphs raised in standardized reference sediment  (SRS) and SRS containing a concentration gradient of the most toxic of the MC from Microcystis aerugenosa.

Recent Presentations:

LEC Oxygen Toxicity in Aquatic Invertebrates
Gestational Exposure to High Perchlorate Levels - 2009

Selected Publications:

Dr. Gary Winston in the
NCWQR Lab at Heidelberg

Winston, G.W., Adams, M.S., Benson, W.H., Gray, E.L. Jr., Matthews, H.B., Moore, M.N. and Safe, S. H. Biological bases of similarities and differences.  In Interconnections Between Human Health and Ecological Integrity. (Di Giulio, R.T. and Benson, W.H., Eds) Society of Environmental Toxicology SETAC Press, Pensacola, FL 136 p. (2002).

Regoli F., Winston G.W., Gorbi S., Frenzilli G., Nigro M., Corsi I., Focardi S. (2003). Integrating enzymatic responses to organic chemical exposure with total oxyradical absorbing capacity and DNA damage in the European eel Anguilla anguilla. Env. Toxicol. Chem. 22(9): 2120-2129

Winston, G.W., Lehrman, S., Goldberger, S., Collins, M., and Leventhal, A.  (2003) A tap water turbidity crisis in Tel Aviv, Israel, due to technical failure: Toxicological and risk management issues.  Int. J. Environ. Health, 206, 1-8.

Winston, G.W.., LeMaire, D.G.E. and Lee, R.F. (2004) Anti-oxidants and Total Oxyradical Scavenging Capacity During Grass Shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, Embryogenesis.  Comp. Biochem. and Physiol. C,  139: 281-288.

Winston, G.W.  On the Issue of the U.S. EPA Restrictions for Chlorpyrifos:  Use in Homes and the Ensuing Proposed Adoption of this Policy in Israel. Position paper prepared for the Interagency Committee for Registration of Home- and Industry-use Pesticides, Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection, Jerusalem, Israel. 3 July 2006. 

Amitai, Y., Winston, G., Sack, J., Wasser, J., Lewis, M., Leventhal, A., Israeli, A. (2007) Gestational exposure to high perchlorate concentrations in drinking water and neonatal thyroxine levels. Thyroid, 17: 843-850.