The infrastructure offered by CSIC is made up of two types of installations (IATS-EXP, IATS-ANA) located in the campus of the Instituto de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal (IATS) (Castellón, Spain) and a third located at the Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM-) (Vigo, Spain). IATS and IIM offer the use of experimental tanks (EXP) and IATS also offers the use of analytical labs (ANA).
The users will be able to develop a research project using highly qualified facilities and having access to a research environment which has proven to be highly productive in the previous FP7-AQUAEXCEL project. Users will have the opportunity to consult, have advice and interchange ideas with experts on most of the disciplines in Aquaculture, with notable excellence in marine fish parasites, fish pathology, fish immunology, nutrigenomics, genomics, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology to study and control fish reproduction, food intake and growth, Artemia and fish larviculture. IIMEXP in particular offers the possibility of infection/stimulation with several pathogens under biosecurity conditions; vaccination trials (live, attenuated and DNA vaccines).
Expected output/deliverables for users for the three installations: water parameters, biometrical data of fish, feeding and growth data, mortality records after challenges, vaccine efficacy records, gene expression studies, fish serum and tissue samples for RNA and cDNA for expression analysis, histological, pathological, biochemical/metabolic, genomic, functional biology studies, etc. The possibility of presenting an abstract for a conference and/or being involved in the writing of an article resulting from the project is highly envisaged.
Support offered under this proposal for the three installations: Users will be trained by highly qualified and experienced technical and scientific personnel on methodologies, experimental design and data analysis. Information about safety and security rules and procedures will be provided. The support would vary depending on the type of project and the actual degree of autonomy of the user. Users will be integrated in a research group and expected to collaborate in all the research process including report and article writing and publishing. The visiting scientist will receive a workplace including internet access, and receive support in finding accommodation. TNA visitors will have the possibility of conducting research experiments related to Aquaculture that may also include Aquatic Sciences, biotechnology, biomedicine, toxicology, genomics or molecular biology. During the stage, users will have online access to the full text journals and databases through internet, as CSIC is subscribed to the “Web of Science” and to most of the relevant scientific editorials. All this will mean scientists will have more opportunities to discuss the information available and to produce high quality scientific publications.
Name of the infrastructure: Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM-EXP)
Location: Vigo, Spain.
Website address: http://patologia.iim.csic.es
Contact: Beatriz Novoa Garcia
Facilities
IIM-EXP: include 2 separate aquaria rooms, with temperature, photoperiod and water conditions regulated independently. Room one (challenge room), allows challenge of fish (turbot) with bacteria and virus. It is divided into 2 areas: In the inner room temperature can range between 15 and 35 ºC, photoperiod is set up at 12 h light/12 h darkness and aquaria have closed recirculation systems. In the outer room, temperature is set up at 15 ºC and photoperiod as in the interior room. Two types of water quality are provided: a) filtered (50 μm) sea water at 13 ºC-19 ºC); b 23 ºC; c) filtered (10 μm) and UV-sterilized sea water at 15 ºC. Room 2 (stabulation area) at 18-22 ºC, controlled photoperiod and the two same types of sea water. It has flat bottom 500 l-tanks and 10 l-tanks with open water circuit to maintain turbots.
Modality of access
On average each user or user group is expected to stay 2 weeks at the infrastructure. A project is estimated to include 2 weeks for infection/stimulation trials up to 12 weeks for vaccination assays. This modality of access includes the preparatory work of the experiment including acclimatization period of fish, the experiment, technical support for the samplings, and basic processing of samples. It will not include the shipment of samples obtained during the project.
Unit of Access
These are weeks per person. It is defined as the number of weeks each person in a project is using a set of experimental tanks and associated lab units. One typical access consists of between 2 and 12 units of access.