Aquaculture

Diego Robledo [GL]

Group Leader

A picture of Diego against a sunlit horizon.

Current research

My main interest is to understand responses to pathogens in aquaculture species. I use functional genomics to understand differences in resistance / susceptibility and learn about the genomic mechanisms underpinning successful immune responses. The final goal is to exploit this knowledge to produce disease-resistant animals through genome editing and genomic selection.

 

Favourite aquaculture species  

Turbot, because you can stockpile them.

 

Background

As an undergraduate I studied biology in the University of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, NW Spain). During my PhD in the genetics department of the same university I studied sex determination in turbot, but also had the opportunity to work in other traits and species, generally developing genomic resources and studying immune responses to pathogens. For my postdoc I moved to the Roslin Institute where I complemented my expertise in functional genomics with skills on quantitative genetics and animal breeding, and applied them to study resistance to various diseases in Atlantic salmon. Since 2019 I am a group leader developing my research ideas at the Roslin Institute, or at least trying to!

  • [2011-2016]          PhD in Genetics (University of Santiago de Compostela)
  • [2016-2017]          Postdoctoral research fellow (the Roslin Institute) 
  • [2017-2019]          Royal Society Newton International Fellow (the Roslin Institute)
  • [2019-present]    Career Track Fellow (the Roslin Institute)

 

Interests, hopes and dreams

I love animals, computers and good weather. I wish I lived somewhere sunny, surrounded by animals and with excellent WiFi. I hope I can retire there in a couple of years. My current personal project is building an aquarium at home for shrimp and guppies.