CellFish: establishing fish cell cultures from Azorean species for sustainable food production

Abstract
Cellular agriculture is defined as the production of agricultural products from cell cultures rather than from whole plants or animals. With growing interest in cellular agriculture as a means to address the public health, environmental, and animal welfare challenges of animal agriculture, the concept of producing seafood from fish cell- and tissue-cultures is emerging as a means to address similar challenges with industrial aquaculture systems and marine capture. The major goal set forward for this PhD proposal is the production of food from fish cell lines, using state-of-the-art tissue engineering and bioreactors technologies, for cell-culture growth and the development of cultivated seafood. The lack of stable cell lines from relevant fish species for human consumption opens new possibilities to explore unique and understudied Azorean fish species to isolate primary cell lines. Complete characterization of cells lines will ensue from initial studies in straight cooperation with the Stem Cell Engineering Research Group (SCERG) from the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (iBB), Instituto Superior Técnico. The potential PhD candidate will be supported by researchers with complementary competences, including bioprocess engineers with consolidated expertise on stem cell cultivation and marine biologists with expertise in fish biology and histology of fish tissues

Candidate’s Profile
The candidate should be knowledgeable in specific areas such as marine biology, cellular biology, molecular biology, Ichthyology and demonstrate expertise in performing general laboratory work, including dissections and tissue preparations for light microscopy observations and cell-culture handling skills under sterile conditions.

Name(s) of supervisor(s)
Doutor Carlos Rodrigues (Orientador principal) Instituto Superior Técnico, iBB
Doutor Duarte Mendonça (Co-orientador) , CBA, UAÇ
Doutor Raul Bettencourt (co-orientador) OKEANOS, UAç

Identification of PhD Program

PhD Programme in Sciences of the Sea, University of the Azores, Portugal, Universidade dos Açores | (uac.pt)

Notice of the call (english version)

Notice of the call ( portuguese version)

We are no longer accepting applications for this scholarship. Thank you.