Research

We contribute to aquaculture sustainability, food security, and animal welfare with world-class research in genetics, genomics and health.

Salmon, oysters, and shrimp--species studied at the Roslin Institute.

The Roslin Institute's aquaculture research team studies ways to improve sustainability in the industry. We do so through our state-of-the-art genetic and genomic technologies and through our world-leading research, which is focused on understanding the genetic basis of disease resistance.

Our research themes

The aquaculture research team centres its study on several key goals:

  • Enhancing animal health and welfare through study into the genetic basis of disease resistance
  • Applying our research on disease resistance to breeding schemes
  • Improving our understanding of the genomes of aquaculture species through genome functional annotation
  • Understanding the consequences of whole-genome duplications for productive traits
  • Characterising host-pathogen interactions
  • Developing open source genomic resources for use by aquaculture scientists globally.

These goals define the research we undertake and how we work with other universities and industry partners.

Our team and projects

Over the past several years, the aquaculture team at the Roslin Institute has grown significantly. Each of Roslin's aquaculture research groups works toward its own specific goals and contributes to ongoing research, writing, and projects across the academic and industry spheres. 

The Roslin Institute research groups also collaborate internally on many projects and University programmes, allowing us to benefit from shared insight in all the work we produce. We are proud of both our diverse areas of expertise and our capacity to collaborate across intrepid projects.

The species we study

An important part of our research is focused on Atlantic salmon. We also work with other economically important aquatic animals such as:

  • tilapia
  • mussels
  • prawns
  • oysters
  • carp
  • sea bream
  • sea bass.

Our research produces original essays and reviews, which provide further detail into the work we do and how to apply it for a more sustainable industry.

We use state-of-the-art facilities to conduct our research.

The Aquaculture Genetics Research Facility (AGRF) and Aquatic Invertebrate System (AIS) are state-of-the-art biosecure aquarium facilities which allow us to better study early life stages in fish and invertebrates respectively, and assist us in our research on disease resistance.

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