Green-glowing fish to improve product safety in China

TINY fish that glow green and morph in the presence of toxins are joining front-line efforts in China to improve product safety.

Backed by a well-known Chinese venture capitalist, Hong Kong-based startup Vitargent Biotechnology says it has developed fish-based tests for more than 1 000 toxic chemicals that could help firms from drugmakers to food manufacturers identify disease-causing contaminants.

The technique relies on young transgenic zebrafish and medaka fish whose development is altered in specific ways by known toxins, indicating potential harm to humans. Vitargent’s $300 (R3 560) screening test could speed up product safety checks in a country beleaguered by scandals over tainted items, founder Eric Chen said.

“Fish models are suitable for screening large amounts of toxins quickly, which is why they are a way of the future,” said Brian Priestly, a toxicologist at Monash University’s Australian Centre for Human Health Risk Assessment.

Dogs, monkeys and rodents had been used in the past to gauge potential harm from chemicals, but now scientists were trying to avoid using them as models of human diseases for ethical and economic reasons, Priestly said.

The potential to safeguard product safety, both in China and abroad, is what prompted an investment in Vitargent by Peter Liu, a venture capitalist. – Bloomberg