UGent Aquaculture R&D Consortium
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VIB Plant Systems Biology

Department of Molecular Genetics< Faculty of Sciences

Personnel in charge of aquaculture research

  • Frank Van Breusegem
  • Marnik Vuylsteke

Activities

The VIB is a top class centre of excellence consisting of 800 people in 60 research groups carrying out research in the frontline of life science. Besides the scientific excellence, the host institution VIB conducts a proactive technology transfer policy. Invention analysis, patent applications, licensing negotiations as well as building business plans for new companies are activities carried out by VIB’s biotech specialized technology transfer team.

The VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology (VIB-PSB), headed by Prof. Dr. Inzé, is one of Europe’s major centers in Plant Science. The ambition of the VIB-PSB is to further develop system biology approaches in the field of plant sciences with the clear goal to create improved crops important for sustainable development. Therefore, the VIB-PSB chose to study in particular the mechanisms controlling cell division and organ growth. The know-how generated in this research fields is key for the understanding and improvement of plant growth and biomass production.

The VIB-PSB and the VIB as a whole have a long standing tradition of converting basic science into successful industrial entities: Plant Genetic Systems (now Bayer CropScience), CropDesign, (now BASF Plant Sciences), Devgen and more recently Solucel. Today, these companies together with the VIB-PSB form the largest European Plant Biotechnology Campus.

Since 2003 the VIB-PSB and the ARC have joined forces to undertake large scale research in the field of larviculture of fish and shellfish species of aquaculture interest, with a main focus on the brine shrimp Artemia . Access to the latest DNA technologies at the VIB-PSB and to staff that are highly experienced in the rapid acquisition, analysis and interpretation of genomic data, allowed the ARC for the first time to implement advanced genomics, transcriptomics, gene mapping technology and bio-informatics, in its R&D program. The results of the research will add significantly to available knowledge and IP within the ARC and VIB-PSB with respect to the molecular controls on important aspects of the development of Artemia and other aquaculture species.

In 2004, Moana Technologies, a company active in Penaeus Monodon breeding, established a partnership with the VIB-PSB, and started a large scale, long term research with the VIB-PSB. This partnership will allow the company to take advantage of the VIB-PSB expertise in genomic technologies and bioinformatics to develop platform technologies crucial in its Penaeus Monodon breeding activities.

Contact

  • tel: +32 9 33 13 800
  • fax: +32 9 33 13 809
  • Mailing address:
    • VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Gent, Belgium
 
homepage manager: Jean Dhont
UGent Aquaculture R&D Consortium (Ghent University
Laboratory of Aquaculture (Rozier 44 (tel: +32 (0)9 264.37.54 (fax: +32 (0)9 264.41.93