Events

An informational webinar about EPA’s EcoTox TARGET (Technology Advancing Rapid Gene Expression-based Testing) Challenge will be held Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

The winner of this challenge will develop a commercially viable technology for measuring global gene expression at a cost and scale that allows analysis of thousands to tens of thousands of samples per year. Target price point: $50 per sample or less. There will be a single award of $300,000 made to the winning entry.

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 the species and associated trophic levels most frequently tested when evaluating the ecological hazards of chemicals. The technology must meet a level of quality, performance, and transcriptome coverage that is also economically and commercially viable for high throughput screening applications (commercial viability counts for 30% of scoring).

Registration for the Challenge will continue through March 16.