chelOMICS: Application of multi-OMICS approaches to provide a holistic understanding of siderophore mediated host-pathogen interactions and new diagnostic options for aquaculture fish infections

Outbreaks of bacterial diseases pose a persistent challenge to fish farming around the world causing significant economic loss.

To improve efficiency, safety, and sustainability of aquaculture new health monitoring and rapid disease diagnostics approaches are required.

Here, we propose an ambitious multidisciplinary project that implements modern multi-omics tools, in particular metabolomics and metagenomics, to provide a holistic understanding of host-pathogen interactions in farmed fish in the context of three major bacterial diseases; vibriosis, photobacteriosis, and furunculosis.

This project will focus specifically on the metabolome of siderophores, iron chelating microbial metabolites that are key virulence factors during infection, and their use as biomarkers for early disease diagnostics.

In nature, microorganisms exist in diverse communities and therefore infections can be caused by a combination of species yet the involvement of co-species in disease progression is poorly understood and represents a great diagnostic challenge. I have gained extensive skills in metabolomics through my PhD in Australia and postdoctoral experience in Germany.

This project will enable me to go one step further; I will use different bioinformatic tools as well as imaging analytical chemistry (MALDI-IMS) approaches to integrate metabolomics and microbiome data and answer important ecological questions in aquaculture.

I am highly motivated to take on this new challenge and acquire new scientific and transferable skills, which will strengthen my profile as an independent researcher and increase my opportunities for a permanent position after the fellowship.