# Advancing a community-led zebrafish toxicology phenotype atlas

> **NIH NIH R24** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $553,708

## Abstract

Zebrafish have greatly advanced toxicology and environmental studies as a valuable animal model because
they are easy to manipulate, breed, and observe during development. However, the absence of universal
standards significantly impedes scientific progress and therefore human and environmental health. Standard
ontologies and data models are acutely needed to improve data compatibility within and across species and
domains. We propose to address these needs by creating community-built standards for annotating zebrafish
toxicological exposure and their phenotypic outcomes (toxicophenotypes). We will design and deploy a
toxicophenotype data model that will advance ontologies such as the Zebrafish Phenotype Ontology (ZP). This
data model will allow integration and interoperability across species and across toxicological studies. We will
create a toxicophenotype annotation toolkit that will allow users to annotate their data conforming to the newly
created toxicophenotype data model and ZP, and therefore create “born-interoperable” data. Finally, we will
instantiate a zebrafish toxicophenotype atlas web application. This atlas will serve as a visual definition of the
standards and their documentation for examining variations of specific phenotypes by laboratories in the
community. Users will be able to explore and query exposures and phenotypes of interest and see example
images demonstrating the phenotypes.
This project will community-governed by diverse stakeholders in toxicology and environmental health sciences
to ensure fit-for-purpose design and sustainability. Towards that end, we will create robust, transparent
structures for deciding on standards content, structure, and versioning; attribution policies; and content
management and access practices. We will coordinate requirements gathering, documenting best practices for
using the standards and annotations, usability testing, and plans for sustainability.
Realizing interoperable toxicophenotypic data is crucial to improve data integration across scale and
granularity; thereby accelerating an understanding of environmental influences on health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10839545
- **Project number:** 1R24ES036130-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Alexa Burger
- **Activity code:** R24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $553,708
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-07-23 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10839545

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10839545, Advancing a community-led zebrafish toxicology phenotype atlas (1R24ES036130-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-30 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10839545. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*