Wallace Coffee Talks - 17th March 2020

Wallace Coffee Talks - Spring 2020

17th March - 12pm - Zoology Museum

Fancy a cup of coffee or tea and learning more about the researchers at Swansea university? Come join us at the Wallace coffee talks: an informal seminar series where students, staff and others related to Swansea university speak about their research or personal interests.

Ellis Larcombe

Developing a cleaner fish sperm bank

Control of the parasitic salmon louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis is perhaps the biggest issue in Atlantic salmon aquaculture. In recent years lumpfish, Cyclopterus lumpus, have been successfully used as cleaner fish to biologically control the costly salmon lice problem. However, production of lumpfish needs to upscale to reach the industry demand. The production cycle of lumpfish has not been fully closed and, therefore, relies on harvesting of sexually mature brood stock, and artificial insemination. This supply of broodstock is not always consistent, which can be problematic for production and harvested gametes can go to waste. Cryopreservation of the sperm can help solve these issues. This talk will present the current state of lumpfish sperm cryopreservation, along with my plans to optimise the methodology and make it more suitable for commercial lumpfish production. 

@LarcombeEllis

@csar_ace

Ruth Callaway 

What is driving Swansea Bay? Learning from the past to prepare for the future   

Urbanised coastal environments like Swansea Bay have undergone dramatic change in the past centuries. There are two urban centres, Swansea and Port Talbot, the main wastewater outfall is located in the centre of the inner bay and shipping lanes are dredged to two docks and three rivers. A regularly dredged tidal harbour is located next to Port Talbot Steelworks. All dredge spoils are discarded at a disposal site in the outer Swansea Bay. The bay is designated a Heavily Modified Waterbody under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) because of coastal defence infrastructure dividing land and sea and in recent years it was proposed to build a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay to convert the vast tidal range into electricity. Understanding vulnerabilities of coastal ecosystems facing anthropogenic use is precondition for management decisions and development planning. This can be challenging in areas with multiple activities affecting different faunal communities. In this talk I will discuss long and short-term ecological changes in Swansea Bay. What changed in the past centuries, what during the past decades? How do we assess these changes and what are the scientific challenges? What lessons can we learn for other urban area? And what does this mean for future research? The talk will give an overview of research carried out for a number of projects such as SEACAMS, KESS and Welsh Crucible, and will also highlight interdisciplinary work. 

Biomath Colloquium 06/03/2020

BioMaths Colloquium Series - 2019/20

  06 March 2020 - 3pm Robert Recorde Room

(Computational Foundry, Bay Campus)

Modelling evolutionary adaptations of cancer cells to fluctuating oxygen levels

Ms Aleksandra Ardaseva

(Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford) 

Our BioMaths Colloquium Series resumes for the winter term with a seminar by Aleksandra Ardaseva, from the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford.  Aleksandra is interested in understanding cancer evolution and identifying the processes that lead to incurable disease. In particular she is interested in the impact of temporal fluctuations in the tumoral microenvironment on its evolution.


Abstract

A major challenge in malignant tumours is cell heterogeneity, which has been proposed to arise due to temporal variations in nutrient supply caused by highly irregular vasculature. Such variability requires cells to adapt to potentially lethal variations in environmental conditions. Risk spreading (“bet—hedging”) through spontaneous phenotypic variations is an evolutionary strategy that allows species to survive in temporally varying environments. Individuals within a species diversify their phenotypes ensuring that at least some of them can survive in the face of sudden environmental change. We aim to investigate whether cancer cells may adopt this strategy when dealing with rapidly changing levels of nutrient due to temporally -Varying blood flow.

Here, we present a system of nonlocal partial differential equations modelling the evolutionary dynamics of phenotype-structured cancer cell populations exposed to fluctuating oxygen levels. In this model, the phenotypic state of every cell is described by a continuous variable that provides a simple representation of its metabolic phenotype, ranging from fully oxidative to fully glycolytic. The cells are grouped into two competing populations that undergo hen'table, spontaneous, phenotypic variations at different rates. A combination of analysis and numerical simulations indicates that under certain conditions the cell-oxygen dynamics can lead to regions of chronic hypoxia (low oxygen level) and cycling hypoxia. Moreover, the model shows that under chronic—hypoxic conditions lower rates of phenotypic variation lead to a competitive advantage, whereas higher rates of phenotypic variation can confer a competitive advantage under cycling-hypoxic conditions. In the latter case, bet-hedging evolutionary strategies, whereby cells switch between oxidative and glycolytic phenotypes, can spontaneously emerge. These results shed light on the evolutionary processes that may underpin the emergence of phenotypic heterogeneity in vascularised tumours, and suggest potential therapeutic strategies.

  

The discussions will continue over tea and coffee after the seminar. 

Hope to see many of you!

For the list of forthcoming seminars, see here

Biosciences Seminar Speaker 05 March 2020

Biosciences Seminar Series - Winter 2020
05 March 2020 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Unravelling the ecology of non-native species

Prof. Helen Roy

(Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Wallingford, UK)

Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis). Photo by Ken Dolbear

Our Biosciences Seminar Series continues for the 2020 winter term with a talk by Professor Helen Roy from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Wallingford (UK), and also a visiting Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading. Helen is an ecologist and in her research she is broadly interested in the effects of environmental change on insect populations and communities, with a particular focus on the dynamics of invasive non-native ('alien') species and their biodiversity and ecosystem-level effects and on which she is a leader at UK and EU levels. A further strong focus of her research is on Biological Recording and on science communication and citizen science. 

Abstract

The recently released Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment’s message is stark: biodiversity – the diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems – is declining faster than at any time in human history. Invasive non-native species introduced by humans into regions beyond their natural distribution, were identified as one of the five top direct causes of biodiversity loss. 

Biological invasions can threaten biodiversity and ecosystems, particularly through their interactions with other drivers of change such as climate warming. Species inventories are recognised as critical for the management of biological invasions, informing horizon scanning and surveillance, and underpinning prevention, control and elimination of invasive non-native species. There have been major developments in the availability of high quality data on invasive non-native species. Ensuring knowledge on invasive non-native species shared between countries, is essential to advance understanding and enable successful implementation of strategies to manage invasive non-native species. Here I provide an overview of the ways in which this information can be used to inform science, policy and ultimately conservation. I include insights into invasion ecology from broad patterns and processes to approaches in surveillance and monitoring, particularly involving citizens and highlighting the importance of collaborations including the forthcoming IPBES global thematic assessment on invasive non-native species. Networks established through these collaborative initiatives have benefits for people, science and nature.  

   

Hope to see many of you - everyone most welcome to attend!


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Biosciences Seminar Speaker 27 February 2020

Biosciences Seminar Series - Winter 2020
27 February 2020 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

The evolution of parental care diversity in Amphibians

Dr Isabella Capellini

(Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

Our Biosciences Seminar Series resumes for the 2020 winter term with a talk by Dr Isabella Capellini from the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Isabella is an evolutionary ecologist, interested in the evolution of reproductive strategies, biological invasions, the ecology and evolution of sleep, and in general eco-evolutionary life history studies,  taking a comparative approach.

Abstract

Once evolved, parental care plays a key role in promoting social evolution, cooperation and conflict within the families, and alters the trajectory of life history evolution. Parental care is also extremely diverse across species, ranging from simple behaviour like attendance of the eggs to complex adaptation like food provisioning, lactation and viviparity. Most studies on parental care focus on one or few care forms, or reduce diversity to a simple presence/absence condition. Thus, we still do not know how diversity itself evolves, what the drivers of its evolution are, and whether all forms of care equally affect life history evolution. Amphibians offer the opportunity to address these questions being one of the most diverse taxon in reproductive, life history, and parental care strategies. By explicitly considering diversity and using phylogenetic comparative methods, we find support for some of the long standing hypotheses on the evolution of parental care, but also reveal a much more complex and unexpected picture on how and why care forms evolve, and what consequence different care forms have for the evolution of egg and clutch size.

   

Hope to see many of you - everyone most welcome to attend!


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Wallace Coffee Talks - 25th January 2020

Wallace Coffee Talks - Winter 2020

25th January - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Fancy a cup of coffee or tea and learning more about the researchers at Swansea university? Come join us at the Wallace coffee talks: an informal seminar series where students, staff and others related to Swansea university speak about their research or personal interests.

Carolina Gutierrez

Development and validation of an Operational Welfare Score Index (LOWSI) for farmed lumpfish Cyclopterus lumpus L.

Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L.) are widely used for sea lice control in commercial salmon farming, but their welfare is often challenged by poor husbandry, stress and disease outbreaks, compromising their ability to delouse salmon and causing public concern. For this reason, it is extremely important to identify when the welfare of the lumpfish is compromised in a practical and effective way, so corrective actions can be taken reducing stress-related mortalities and improving the sustainability of the industry. This talk will present the Lumpfish Operational Welfare Score Index (LOWSI) we have developed based on a Likert-scale assessment of skin and fin damage, eye condition, sucker deformities and relative weight. 

@karolgrvet

@csar_ace

Alex Purdie 

Growing sea lice in the laboratory to support the aquaculture industry  

Sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, are an obligate ectoparasite of salmonids which costs the salmon farming industry millions of pounds every year. At low infection density (ca. 5-10 per fish) lice induce stress and form ulcers which can lead to secondary infections, at higher infection densities (ca. 100 per fish) lice can kill their host. Salmon cages stock fish at a high density, this provides the lice with a bountiful and easy to reach supply of hosts, causing lice populations to increase dramatically, often with hundreds of lice per fish. These epizootic episodes are costly for the farms and also increase infection rates in wild salmonid populations – this has been linked to the decline of some wild populations. New and improved sea lice controls are therefore required, and to develop these the industry needs a reliable supply of lice to test treatments on. However, the only way to culture lice is by using a live host salmonid, this leads to a high cost per louse and serious ethical issues. This talk will cover an MRes project which aims to culture sea lice in the laboratory without the use of a host. It will explore the key stages required to close the loop in this parasitic life cycle, notably by providing a reliable source of food for the lice which contains both nutrients to feed the lice and can induce the lice to attack it as if it were a salmon. If successful, the aquaculture industry will have a new reliable source of lice to use in the laboratory, which is both cheaper and more humane than the current system. 

@csar_ace

Biomath Colloquium 07/02/2020

BioMaths Colloquium Series - 2019/20

  

07 February 2020 - 3pm Zoology Museum

(Wallace Building, Singleton Campus)

Biomechanics and mechanobiology for bone tissue engineering in vitro

Dr Zhao Feihu

(College of Engineering, Swansea University) 

image by Zhao Feihu

Our BioMaths Colloquium Series resumes for the winter term with a seminar by Dr Zhao Feihu, from the Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering at Swansea University.  Zhao is a Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering and joined Swansea University in 2019, from the Eindhoven University of Technology. Zhao's research interest are in mechano-biology, using computational and experimental approaches, such as in silico bone tissue engineering, effects of stretching and mechanical stimulation on the development and characteristics of cells, etc.


Abstract

Mechanical stimulation can regulate cellular activities in vivo, e.g. differentiation, proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) production. In vivo evidence has shown that higher bone mineral density can be achieved under mechanical stimulation (mechanical strain and/or fluid induced wall shear stress). If mechanobiological findings can be translated to bone tissue engineering in vitro, we may accelerate osteogenesis and enhance mineralised bone tissue formation, which for example can be used for drug testing to treat osteoporosis. Therefore, we aimed to explore this possibility by applying different mechanical stimulations to the cells (stem cells and bone cells) using different bioreactor techniques. Furthermore, to refine the in vitro bone tissue engineering experiments and reduce trial-and-error experiments, we used in silico (computational) approaches to find the optimal cellular mechanical stimulation for bone tissue engineering, and predicted how mineralised bone tissue grew within biomaterial scaffolds under different mechanical stimulations.  

The discussions will continue over tea and coffee after the seminar. 

Hope to see many of you!

For the list of forthcoming seminars, see here

Biosciences Seminar Speaker 30 January 2020

Biosciences Seminar Series - Winter 2020
30 January 2020 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Inferring macroevolutionary processes from phylogenies and fossils

Dr Daniele Silvestro

(University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

from: Rolland, Silvestro et al. (2018)

Our Biosciences Seminar Series resumes for the 2020 winter term with a talk by Dr Daniele Silvestro from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. Daniele is a computational biologist, particularly interested in macroevolution, and broadly in Bayesian inference and stochastic processes.

Abstract

Present biodiversity represents a snapshot of a very long and complex evolutionary history, during which species and entire clades have originated, diversified and –to a large extent– gone extinct. Reliable estimates of the processes that have shaped diversity through time and in space are crucial to understanding present biodiversity patterns. Here, I present a suite of Bayesian models to infer different macroevolutionary processes including the dynamics of speciation, extinction and dispersal and the evolution of quantitative traits. These methods show that both phylogenies of extant taxa and the fossil record provide valuable information about past and present biodiversity, although their integration remains challenging. Finally, I will outline how artificial intelligence can help the development of an interdisciplinary approach interfacing earth sciences, palaeontology, and evolutionary biology to further improve our understanding of the processes driving the evolution of organisms and ecosystems.

   

Hope to see many of you - everyone most welcome to attend!


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here