Laboratory for Ecotoxicology (LECOTOX) at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, represents qualified research capacity focused on toxic impact of persistent organic pollutants on biota with special emphases on fresh water ecosystem and sub-lethal types of toxicity (endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity, and "dioxin-like" toxicity).

Toxicity is accompanied by changes in gene expression that are either causally linked to toxic outcomes or are downstream signalling events of toxic exposure.

Ecotoxicogenomics, a study of gene and protein expression important in adaptive response to environmental toxicant exposure, if applied together with well established methods and techniques for environmental quality assessment, could provide a reliable diagnosis, prediction and forecasting of toxic impacts on ecosystems.

Therefore, the aim of LECOTOX research group is to use gene expression as sophisticated and reliable biomarkers of exposure to environmental contaminant, together with traditional function-based biomarkers, which may be used to validate the toxic mechanisms of the contaminant.

To achieve this aim, researchers from the different field of investigation: ecotoxicology, endocrinology/endocrine disruption, molecular physiology, biochemistry and genetics are joined together to use gene expression as sophisticated and reliable biomarkers of exposure to environmental contaminant, together with traditional function-based biomarkers, which may be used to validate the toxic mechanisms of the contaminant.