Academic Staff - Dr. Jayne Brian

My research interests lie in the issues surrounding the management and protection of the aquatic environment. After completing my studies in Edinburgh, I was offered the opportunity to work, as a post-doc, with Professor Sumpter, to investigate the effects of mixtures of estrogenic chemicals in fish. This research has considered responses at various levels of biological organisation, from changes in gene expression, through to morphological and physiological effects and impacts on reproductive performance. More recently, I have been exploring whether additional stressors (e.g. temperature, dissolved oxygen, presence of additional chemicals etc.) influence the way in which fish respond to estrogenic mixtures. I have also begun some preliminary studies to investigate some of the implications of climate change for freshwater fish. I plan to pursue these research strands independently in my current, tenured research post.

Qualifications

• 1993-1997: B.Sc. Ecology (Hons: fisheries management). Edinburgh University.
• 1997-1998: M.Sc. Water resource management, Napier University, Edinburgh.
• 1999-2002: Ph.D. Aquatic environmental biology, Napier University, Edinburgh.

Career

• 2002-2006: Post-doc. School of Biosciences, Brunel University.
• 2006-2009: Post-doc. Institute for the Environment, Brunel University.
• 2009-present: Research fellow. Institute for the Environment, Brunel University.

My research has focussed on the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the aquatic environment. During my Ph.D. studies, I explored population variability in the shore crab, with a view to the identification of biomarkers of exposure to hormonally-active chemicals (Brian, 2005). My post-doctoral research centred on the analysis of the combined effect of estrogenic chemicals, using the fathead minnow as a test species. Initially, this work was carried out as part of an international consortium (ACE), funded by the EC, and more recently, using funds awarded by NERC.

Through my involvement with the ACE project, it has been possible to demonstrate that mixtures of estrogenic chemicals act together, according to the principles of concentration addition, to affect the physiology of male fish (Brian et al. 2005). This work has also highlighted the capacity for estrogenic chemicals to act together at very low and individually ineffective concentrations to affect reproductive endpoints, such as fecundity and the expression of sexual characteristics (Brian et al. 2007).

Subsequently, my post-doctoral research considered the potential for confounding factors (both chemical and physical) influence the response of fish to mixtures of estrogenic chemicals. This revealed that the rate of the estrogenic response may be increased in the presence of non-estrogenic chemicals, such as surfactants, as well as in response to higher temperatures (e.g. Brian et al. 2008; Harris et al. 2009). These findings contribute to our understanding of the hazard posed by mixtures under more environmentally realistic exposure regimes.

I was recently granted a tenured research position within the Institute and, in this role, I will continue to explore how fish respond to chemicals under multiple-stress, environmentally-relevant exposure situations. In particular, I am interested in the implications of climate change for UK fish populations and I have begun some preliminary research to explore how rearing temperature influences the growth and reproductive development of lab-reared fish. Publications relating to this work are currently in preparation.

Grants and Fellowships:

• 2008 – European Molecular Biology Organisation. Short term travel fellowship to the University of Florida: Microarray technology and mixture effects on fish.
• 2006 - Fisheries Society of the British Isles. Principal Investigator: An investigation into the vitellogenic response of fish at elevated temperatures: protein induction vs. gene expression.
• 2005 – NERC standard grant. Recognised researcher: Confounding factors in the risk assessment of estrogenic mixtures.
• 2003 – British Ecological Society. Principle Investigator: Oestrogenic effects on the nesting behaviour of male three-spined stickleback.

Training awards:

• HEA: Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences award for training in laboratory skills – techniques in molecular biology; nucleic acids and genomics.
• 2006 – Roberts Review Fund: for training in techniques in molecular biology – nucleic acids and genomics. University of Hertfordshire.

Please contact me if you are interested in pursuing postgraduate or postdoctoral research in the following areas:

• endocrine disruption
• the ecotoxicology of mixtures
• responses to multiple stressors
• climate change impacts on fish

Brian JV, Fantinati A, Pojana G, Marcomini A, Beresford N. and Sumpter JP. (2009) Hypoxia does not influence the response of fish to a mixture of estrogenic chemicals. Environmental Science and Technology 43: 214-218. 

*Harris CA, *Brian JV, Booy P, Lamoree M, Pojana G, Marcomini A. and Sumpter JP. (2009) The influence of surfactant, linear alkylbenzene sulphonate, on the estrogenic response to a mixture of (xeno)estrogens in vitro and in vivo.  Aquatic Toxicology 91: 95-98. (*joint first author).     

Singer AC, Howard BM, Johnson AC, Knowles CJ, Jackman S, Accinelli C, Bernard I, Bird S, Boucard T, Boxall A, Brian JV, et al. (2008) Risk Assessment of Tamiflu® use under Pandemic Conditions - Report from an Interdisciplinary Workshop.  Environmental Health Perspectives 116: 1563-1567. 

Brian JV, Harris CA, Runnalls, TJ, Fantinati A, Pojana G, Marcomini A, Booy P, Lamoree M, Kortenkamp A. and Sumpter JP. (2008) Evidence of temperature-dependent effects on the estrogenic response of fish: Implications with regard to climate change.  Science of the Total Environment 397: 72-81. 

Harris CA, Routledge EJ, Shaffer C, Brian JV, Giger W and Sumpter JP. (2007) Benzotriazole is anti-estrogenic in vitro but not in vivo. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 26: 2376-2372. 

Brian JV, Sumpter JP. (2007) Mixtures of chemicals in water: Implications for chemical regulation and environmental policy. Journal of Water Law, 18: 62-65.

Brian JV, Harris CA, Scholze M, Kortenkamp A, Booy P, Lamoree M, Pojana G, Jonkers N, Bonfa A, Marcomini A. and Sumpter JP. (2007) Analysing estrogenic mixture effects on reproductive performance of freshwater fish.  Environmental Science and Technology, 41: 337-344.  

Brian JV, Augley J.J. and Braithwaite, VA. (2006) Endocrine disrupting effects on the nesting behaviour of male three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteous aculeatus). Journal of Fish Biology, 68: 1883-1890.  

Brian JV, Fernandes T, Ladle RJ, Todd PA. (2006) Patterns of morphological and genetic variability in UK populations of the shore crab, Carcinus maenas Linnaeus, 1758 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 329: 47-54.  

Brian JV, Harris CA, Scholze M, Backhaus T, Booy P, Lamoree M, Pojana G, Jonkers N, Bonfa A, Marcomini A. and Sumpter JP. (2005) Accurate prediction of the response of freshwater fish to a mixture of estrogenic chemicals.  Environmental Health Perspectives, 113: 721-728. 

Brian JV. (2005) Oestrogenic effects on the nesting behaviour of male three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteous aculeatus). Bulletin of the British Ecological Society 36: 39.

Brian JV. (2005) Inter-population variability in the reproductive morphology of the shore crab (Carcinus maenas): evidence of endocrine disruption in a marine crustacean? Marine Pollution Bulletin, 50: 410-416.  

Brian JV. (2004) Some ‘ACE’ data on the analysis of mixtures: an in vivo perspective.  CREDO Newsletter, 3: 1-2.

External Duties

• Member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI), the British Ecological Society (BES) and the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA).
• Reviews articles for a number of journals including Environmental Health Perspectives, Environmental Science and Technology, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology and Aquatic Toxicology.
• Reviews grant applications for both UK and US funding bodies.