Friday 24 May 2019

Wallace Coffee Talks - 28 May 2019

Wallace Coffee Talks - Spring 2019 
28 May - 12pm - Zoology Museum

The invasive Slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata in South Wales

The invasive non-native species Crepidula fornicata was first introduced to European coastal waters at the end of the 19th Century. It is now found in large numbers in most oyster production areas in England and Wales, and has been implicated to have major negative impacts on native bivalves. The vast majority of studies carried out on C. fornicata have focused on its potential impacts through habitat alteration and trophic competition. Little work has been carried out to gain an understanding of its biochemistry and its potential as a harbourer of infectious disease that could be of detrimental effect to important shellfish species. The aim of my PhD is to help bridge this knowledge gap and to gain a further insight into this non-native species. 


Metabolite profiling of a robust cyanobacterium for industrial biotechnology
Cyanobacteria are gram negative bacteria with the ability to photosynthesise, they are able to thrive in a wide variety of extreme habitats such as high ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and have many defence strategies to overcome this stress including the production of secondary metabolites. Metabolomics can be used to investigate this altered metabolism via targeted and untargeted techniques. Some metabolites produced under stress conditions are unique and are of increasing interest from a biotechnological perspective as sustainable sources of ingredients in a variety of industries. In this talk I will give a brief overview of my PhD with a focus on the changes in metabolite levels produced by Chlorogloeopsis fritschii, PCC 6912, during UV exposure and the work conducted at my 3-month placement at Unilever last summer. 


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