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OPTical Imaging of Molecular and signalling Activity in Real-time: application to flatfish metamorphosis

Project description

Real-time imaging of fish development

The abnormal development of flatfish during metamorphosis hampers their effective aquaculture. Although the transition from larvae to fish has been extensively studied, the methods have relied mainly on histological sections and gene expression profiling. The EU-funded OPTIMAR project aims to investigate the specific molecular signalling pathways associated with abnormal metamorphosis. Researchers will develop non-invasive optical imaging tools that can directly visualise the mechanisms of metamorphosis in whole live flatfish. In combination with image reconstruction methods, it will be possible to generate high-quality images as well as identify markers of normal and abnormal development. Results will help sustain flatfish aquaculture and make it more profitable.

Objective

Aquaculture is a sustainable means of generating high-quality fish to satisfy the growing global fish consumption. Flatfish are attractive species for aquaculture due to their high market value and consumer demand. However, abnormal development during metamorphosis is often a problem and has hampered the development of successful flatfish aquaculture. Hence, it is critical to understand the specific molecular signalling pathways associated with abnormal metamorphosis.
Larval metamorphosis has been studied using histological sections and gene expression profiling. However, the first requires sacrificing fish and the latter uses pool of larvae. Hence, there is an increasing demand for 3D imaging tools to directly visualise the mechanisms of metamorphosis in whole live flatfish. This offers a unique opportunity for optical imaging (OI) modalities, which are becoming popular for imaging targeted biological processes in model organisms (e.g. zebrafish). However, their full potential for biology and non-model organisms is being overlooked.
The vision for this fellowship is to develop a non-invasive OI tool for real-time 3D in vivo imaging, for studying the molecular mechanisms regulating flatfish metamorphosis. The project combines recent advances in the mathematics of forward and inverse problems, marine molecular biology and modern OI technologies, including selective plane illumination microscopy and optical projection tomography. The developed OI tools will provide clear high-resolution pictures from the inside of live flatfish. Accurate light propagation models and image reconstruction methods will be developed to obtain high-quality images of biological significance. Moreover, novel acquisition schemes will be implemented to enable real-time 3D imaging. Finally, the OI tools will be used for in vivo flatfish imaging to obtain markers of normal and abnormal metamorphosis. This is essential to establish a sustainable and profitable flatfish aquaculture industry.

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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(opens in new window) H2020-WF-2018-2020

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Coordinator

CENTRO DE CIENCIAS DO MAR DO ALGARVE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 147 815,04
Address
UNIVERSIDADE DO ALGARVE
8005-139 FARO
Portugal

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Region
Continente Algarve Algarve
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 147 815,04
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