Niels C. Bols

Recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award

Bachelor of Science (BSc) Simon Fraser, Master of Science (MSc) British Columbia, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Toronto

Email: ncbols@uwaterloo.ca

Telephone: (519) 888-4567 ext. 33993

Office: Biology 1 366C

Research interests

Animal cell cultures are being used for three purposes: basic research, in vitro toxicology, and biotechnology. Basic research is being done on the development of differentiated fish cell lines and culture systems. These are used to identify and study the roles of nutrition, hormones and polypeptide growth factors on the growth and differentiation of fish tissues and organs. A particular point of interest is hemopoiesis. In the future these factors may be useful in enhancing the growth and health of fish. Some of the cell lines are being used in ecotoxicology studies. In particular the toxicology of dioxin-like compounds and polycyclic aromatic (PAHs) is being investigated. Many of these projects use current recombinant DNA and immunological technologies.

Selected publications

• Pham, P.H., Jung, J. and N.C. Bols. (2011). Using 96-well tissue culture polystyrene plates and fluorescence plate reader as tools to study the survival and inactivation of viruses on surfaces. Accepted to Cytotechnology.
• Kawano, A., Haiduk, C., Schirmer, K., Hanner, R., Lee, L.E.J., Dixon, B. and N.C. Bols. (2011). Development of a rainbow trout intestinal epithelial cell line and its response to lipopolysaccharide. Aquaculture Nutrition 17: e241-e252.
• St. Denis, C., Pinheiro, M.D., Power, M.E. and N.C. Bols. (2010). Effect of salt and urban water samples on bacterirvory by the ciliate, Tetrahymena thermophila. Environmental Pollution 158: 502-507.
• Monaghan,S.R., Kent,M.L., Watral,V.G., Kaufman, R.J.,Lee,L.E.J. and N.C. Bols. (2009) Animal cell cultures in microsporidial research: their general roles and their specific use for fish microsporidia. In Vitro Cell & Dev Biol 45: 135-147.
• Ghaffari, P., St. Denis, C.H., Power, M.E., Jin, X., Tsou, V., Bols, N.C. and X. Tang. (2008). Impact of carbon nanotubes on the ingestion and digestion of bacteria by ciliated protozoa. Nature Nanotechnology 3: 347-351.
• Xing, J.G., Lee, L.E.J., Fan, L., Collodi, P., Holt, S.E. and N.C. Bols. (2008). Initiation of a zebrafish blastula stem cell lines on rainbow trout stromal cells and subsequent development under feeder-free conditions into a cell line, ZEB2J. Zebrafish 5: 49-63.
• Tafalla, C., Sanchez , E., Lorenzen, N., DeWitte-Orr, S.J. and N.C. Bols. (2008) Effects of viral hemorrhagic speticemia virus (VHSV) on the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) monocyte cell line RTS-11. Molecular Immunology 45: 1439-1448.
• Pinheiro, M.D.O., Power, M.E., Butler, B.J,, Dayeh, V.R., Slawson, R., Lee, L.E.J., Lynn, D.H. and N.C. Bols. (2007). Using Tetrahymena thermophila to study the role of protozoa in inactivating viruses in water. Appl Environ Microbiol 73: 643-649.

Contributions to books

• Bols, N.C., Kawano, A. and L.E.J. Lee. (2011). Culture of fish cell lines. In: Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology (Eds Farrell, A.P., Cech, J.J., Richards, J.G.and E.D. Stevens), Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
• Bols, N.C., V.R. Dayeh, L.E.J. Lee and K. Schirmer. (2005). Use of fish cell lines in the toxicology and ecotoxicology of fish. In: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Fishes- Environmental Toxicology. ed. T.W. Moon and T.P. Mommsen. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. Vol. 6. pp 43-84.