The Animal Sciences cluster fosters collaboration between researchers with expertise in molecular cell biology, immunology, physiology, behavioural biology, and evo-devo research. As detailed under the links on this page, Animal Sciences participates in all of the institute wide-research themes: Bioactive Molecules, Development & Disease, Evolution & Biodiversity, and Host-Microbe Interactions. In brief, Animal Sciences contributes in the following ways:

Bioactive Molecules

Study bioactive compounds to identify drug candidates and to elucidate biological mechanisms associated with immune-related diseases, including infections, inflammation, metabolic disorders and cancer.

Development & Disease

Elucidate how genetic changes in developmental mechanisms drive the evolution of new functions and phenotypes and how genetic and environmental factors determine disease processes.

Evolution & Biodiversity

Gain insight into genome evolution and the proximate and ultimate factors underlying animal behaviour and cognition, and the consequences of anthropogenic changes in the environment on physiology and behaviour.

Host-Microbe Interactions

Increase understanding of interactions between animal hosts and pathogenic microbes or beneficial bacterial species in the genome.

Connection with other research

• Animal Sciences
  • Development of an in vitro vascular network using zebrafish embryonic cells
  • Single gold nanorods in live cells
  • Novel immunomodulatory drugs for tuberculosis treatment
  • Snake genomes and toxin evolution
  • Endocannabinoids in health and stress
  • High-throughput screening for developmental and reproductive toxicity
  • Urban ecology and avian acoustics: Function and evolution of birdsong in a changing world
  • The eel, a swimming paradox
  • Zebrafish personality, stress physiology and behaviour in the context of sound exposure
  • Evolution and development of bitterling fish
  • Perception of multidimensional speech sounds in humans and songbirds
  • Screening of animal venoms for antimicrobial compounds
  • Inflammafish: Cross-talk between inflammation and autophagy in tuberculosis
  • PROPER: ‘Near-patient’ prostate cancer models for the assessment of disease prognosis and therapy
  • Role of leukocytes in metastasis formation in a zebrafish
  • Nitric oxide in defence against mycobacterial infection
  • ZF-HEALTH - Zebrafish Regulomics for Human Health
  • FishForPharma: Training network on zebrafish infection models for pharmaceutical screens
  • The role of zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae in developing new drug candidates for treating anxiety, from natural sources
  • The serosa: an evolutionary novelty in insect eggs
  • Using zebrafish to target the Achilles’ heel of cancer
  • ZF-CANCER - Developing high-throughput bioassays for human cancers in zebrafish
  • Role of Chemokine Gradient Sensing in Ewing Sarcoma Progression, Angiogenesis and Immune Targeting
  • Glucocorticoids in zebrafish
  • Glucocorticoid modulation of the immune response
  • Smartmix: A new generation of efficient biomedical research
  • Staphylomics: Identifying host factors involved in staphylococcal infection
  • A PCAD-model for fish to study the impact of airgun sound exposure on free-ranging cod
  • Innate immune defence against intracellular pathogens
  • The comparative biology of language learning
  • Why not sing? Reconstructing the evolution of female and male bird song
  • Segments and rules: a comparative study on linguistic rule learning mechanisms
  • The quest for new medicines against tuberculosis
  • Imaging of biomaterial-associated inflammation and infection using zebrafish
  • Neurogenomics of vocal learning
  • Zebrafish: a new engraft model to study Ewing sarcoma progression
  • Chemokine signaling in Tuberculosis and Salmonella infection

• animal biology
• animal sciences
• disease
• molecular biology
• zebrafish