Research Team
Aqua-CLIMADAPT gathers a multidisciplinary team of researchers and consultants from renowned institutions and companies with complementary expertises. They propose to address, in an innovative and integrated way, the impacts of two of the most relevant climate change-driven effects (Marine Heatwaves and/or Hypoxia) on farmed Mediterranean fish species immuno-metabolic responses and resilience to emerging pathogens. The team also aims to optimize/validate the use of functional feeds biofortified with seaweeds' bioactive compounds as a sustainable and cost-effective strategy towards climate change adaptation.
Ana Luísa Maulvault
UCIBIO, Associate Laboratory i4HB , IPMA I.P.
Ana Luísa Maulvault is the Principal Investigator of the Project. She is an Assistant Researcher at IPMA I.P. and Integrated Researcher at UCIBIO. She is an expert in the assessment of climate change effects in marine ecosystems and multi-stressors interactions. Her main research interests include: marine organisms' welfare, physiological and ecotoxicology responses, seafood safety and development of adaptation strategies towards building climate change resilience.
Mário Sousa Diniz
UCIBIO, Associate Laboratory i4HB
Mário Diniz is the Co-PI of the Project. He has a MSc and a PhD in Environmental Sciences and is Assistant Professor at the Chemistry Department of the NOVA School of Science and Techonology (FCT-NOVA). He is an integrated member of the “Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences (UCIBIO) and is the head of the research lab “Biotox Lab”, focused on Environmental Health, Safety and Toxicology. He vast experience in the development and optimization physiological biomarkers to assess the effects of climate change-related stressors and pollutants in marine organisms.
Paula Videira
UCIBIO, Associate Laboratory i4HB
Paula Videira is Assistant Professor at FCT-NOVA, Principal Investigator of the Glycoimmunology research group and director of the patient centric network CDG & Allies at UCIBIO. Her long track record of publications covers many immunology-related areas that span from cancer pathophysiology, cancer immune therapy, cancer biomarkers, immunity in congenital disorders of glycosylation, and immunotoxicology. She has also co-founded the CellmAbs biopharmaceutical dedicated to Glyco-Immuno-Oncology agents, demonstrating interest in translating research findings. Her renowned expertise as a project leader, together with her deep knowledge of immunology will be an asset in the development of the Aqua-CLIMADAPT project.
António Marques
IPMA I.P.
António Marques graduated in Marine Biology at the University of Lisbon (Portugal, 1999) and received his PhD degree in Applied Biological Sciences from the University of Ghent (Belgium, 2005). He is Senior Researcher at the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA). His main interests are seafood quality and safety (chemical contaminants), innovative solutions for the seafood production and processing industries, seafood preservation methodologies, and effects of climate change on seafood quality. He has coordinated several EU funded project, such as ECsafeSEAFOOD (FP7; 17 partners; 2013-2017) and SEAFOODtomorrow (H2020; 35 partners; 2017-2021).
Patrícia Anacleto
IPMA I.P.
Patrícia Anacleto is an Assistant Researcher at IPMA, I.P. and a research collaborator at MARE-FCUL and CIIMAR. Her major scientific areas of expertise are marine biology, ecology, physiology, microbiology and ecotoxicology, and more specifically climate change, bioenergetics and seafood quality and safety. Patrícia is the coordinator (PI) of FCT projects FISHBUDGET (ref. PTDC/BIA-BMA/28630/2017) and MycoFish (ref. PTDC/CVT-CVT/2660/2021).
Pedro Pousão Ferreira
IPMA I.P., S2AQUAcoLAB
Pedro Pousão Ferreira is a biologist with expertise in aquaculture. He has more than 30 years of experience in reproduction (hatchery), growing and production of bass, sole, meagre, grouper and six species of breams inshore (earth ponds) and offshore (cages). He has been involved in the coordination of 38 European and regionally funded projects on aquaculture production, including nutrition, feeding and offshore aquaculture,. He was also an Invited Professor at the University of Algarve and University of Porto, being responsible for the subjects Marine larviculture" and "Aquaculture" .
Florbela Soares
IPMA I.P., S2AQUAcoLAB
Florbela Soares is Researcher at IPMA I.P. and member of S2AQUAcoLAB. She is expert in marine aquaculture, specifically in marine fish pathology. Her main research interest includes: Fish diseases diagnosis (infectious and non infectious); fish symptomatology, physiology and welfare; external parasites live cycle, and infection routes. Fish treatment and prevention.
Cátia Lourenço Marques
IPMA I.P., S2AQUAcoLAB
Cátia Lourenço Marques is a biochemist and holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences with specialization in cellular and molecular biology. Since 2015, she is a researcher at the Aquaculture Research Station (EPPO) from the Portuguese Institute for the Ocean and Atmosphere (IPMA) where she is responsible for the molecular biology laboratory. Since 2021, she performs functions of Scientific Coordinator in the S2AQUAcoLAB, a collaborative laboratory for a Sustainable and Smart Aquaculture. She has more than 15 years of laboratory experience in Life Sciences and Aquaculture fields, particularly related to gene expression of growth and stress markers.
Ana Catarina Grade
IPMA I.P.
Ana Grade is a Senior Technician at Aquaculture, Valorisation and Bioprospecting Division at IPMA I.P. She has experience in several techniques for diagnosing diseases in diferent marine animals, such as histology, citology and molecular biology. Her research interests lie in supporting the aquaculture sector, its management and development with a view to its sustainability and animal welfare.
Zélia Silva
UCIBIO, Associate Laboratory i4HB
Zélia Silva is a Researcher at UCIBIO, FCT NOVA | Lisbon (Portugal). Her research is mainly devoted to the study of the role of immune cells in health and diseases, particularly regarding the role played by glycans. The research themes are immune modulation; anti-cancer immunotherapy; dendritic cells; antigen-presentation; cancer biomarkers; prognostic; new therapeutic antibodies and new therapeutic drugs for CDG or cancer, and immunotoxicology. She is an expert in using several techniques for immune monitorization, especially flow cytometry that she will apply to study fish immune cells in the Aqua-CLIMADAPT project.
Marta Dias
UCIBIO, Associate Laboratory i4HB, IPMA I.P.
Marta Dias is a post-doctoral researcher in the Project. She is a Researcher at UCIBIO. She has vast experience in intertidal ecology, thermal stress, and global climate change ecology. Her research interests are diverse, including food webs, temperate and tropical marine ecology, global climate change effects, health environment assessment, and physiological stress.
Isa Marmelo
UCIBIO, Associate Laboratory i4HB, IPMA I.P.
Isa Marmelo is graduated in Forensic and Criminal Science and holds a master’s degree in Technology and Safety Food. She is currently a PhD student in Biochemistry at NOVA School of Science and Technology - NOVA University of Lisbon. She performs her activities at IPMA, I.P. and she’s also an integrated member at UCIBIO and CIIMAR. Her PhD plan focuses on the immune responses of farmed marine fish and validation of a sustainable aquafeed to minimize the impact of bacterial diseases in a climate change context.
Alícia Pereira
IPMA I.P.
Alícia Pereira is a Biologist and holds a master's degree in Conservation Biology. She is currently a research fellow at IPMA, I.P., supporting research activities related with live marine fish trials and assessment of physiological and ecotoxicological biomarkers. Her main research interests include: conservation of marine ecosystems, climate change effects, sustainable aquaculture and marine organisms' welfare.
Jorge Dias
SPAROS I&D
Jorge Dias is a Marine Biologist and holds a MSc in Food Technology (University of Bordeaux, France), a MSc in Marine Biology and Fisheries (University of Algarve, Portugal) and a PhD in Fish Nutrition from the University of Porto (Portugal). He created SPAROS in 2008 and manages in collaboration with his partner Luís, and he is responsible for managing and supervising the production line operation, as well as product development and quality issues. He is Aqua-CLIMADAPT's consultant, having a vast expertise in nutritional modulation of fish performance and quality,
Leonardo Mata
GOPSIS Lda.
Leonardo Mata, PhD is an expert in aquaculture, ecophysiology and biotechnology of macroalgae with an emphasis on the production of biomass for the commercialization of different products for various industries. He founded Gopsis, Lda, a spin-off company of the Center for Marine Sciences in the Algarve, to provide consultancy and research services in macroalgae aquaculture and commercialization, meeting both the standards of scientific publications and the objectives of the industrial partners.
Ricardo Alves
RSRC, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Ricardo Alves is a Researcher at the Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia). At the RSRC, he is addressing how solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) can negatively affect marine organisms including fish, in particular non-native species cultured in the Red Sea. His research interests are focused on a multidisciplinary approach to address behavioral, molecular, cellular, and physiological responses of marine organisms to climate change and other environmental and anthropogenic stressors. He is a scientific consultant for the Aqua-CLIMADAPT project, contributing with his expertise in molecular biology techniques including transcriptome analysis (RNAseq) and qPCR.
Bastiaan Star
Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo
Bastiaan Star is an evolutionary biologist. He is Aqua-CLIMADAPT's consultant, as he has a strong background in a range of genomic tools (including ancient DNA) to investigate how genetic variation, population structure and population size have changed over time during the onset of human exploitation and the development of long-distance trade networks. He has a particular interest in the marine environment, performing research into a broad range of organisms and their microbiomes across the globe, including Atlantic walrus, Atlantic/Pacific cod, herring, New Zealand snapper, right whales, and Sirenians. He enjoys collaborating with archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, historians and ecologists to study modern and ancient specimens up to thousands of years old.