Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology of Marine Organisms

The group of Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology of Marine Organisms is led by Joan Cerdà. Our primary interest is the investigation of the molecular basis of germ cell (male and female gametes) formation and function in fish and other marine organisms towards the development of biotechnological inventions for application in aquaculture, conservation biology and biomedicine. We focus on important commercial fish species and also use selected model organisms. We employ a broad repertoire of multidisciplinary approaches including phylogenomics and structure-function assays combined with cell and molecular biology methods, high-throughput genomics and transcriptomics, and proteomics. The group maintains a wide international collaboration (USA, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Norway), and has several publications in high impact journals such as Science, Nature Communications, PNAS, Molecular Biology and Evolution and Trends in Genetics.