Ongoing Success of the IATS-CSIC Nutrigenomics Group in the Student Spotlight Award at Aquaculture Europe2025-07-22
The Nutrigenomics and Fish Growth Endocrinology Group at the Institute of Aquaculture Torre de la Sal (IATS-CSIC) has achieved consecutive nominations for the prestigious Student Spotlight Award at the Aquaculture Europe conference in 2022, 2023, and 2025. This award, which recognizes scientific excellence among students—selecting only three candidates each year—has highlighted the work of Fernando Naya, Ricardo Domingo, and Alice Gasperini, each focused on innovative and complementary topics within the field of nutrigenomics.
In 2022, Fernando Naya presented a study on the interaction between diet, host genetics, and gut microbiota in gilthead sea bream, integrating transcriptomic and microbial community analyses throughout the production cycle. In 2023, Ricardo Domingo received the award for his research on the effects of extreme heat stress and dietary intervention on gut microbiota, highlighting the role of emulsifiers in mitigating heat-induced dysbiosis. This year, Alice Gasperini has been nominated for her work on biological ageing in gilthead sea bream, using a multi-omics approach that combines transcriptomics and epigenetics to identify biomarkers of animal welfare.
Despite addressing different topics, all three studies share an integrative approach based on multi-omics technologies. This methodological coherence reflects the group’s scientific strength and training capacity, which has successfully fostered young talent in emerging areas of modern aquaculture.
