Title Affiliations Abstract "The Flemish contribution to the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC-ERIC)" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "EMBRC-ERIC, or the European Marine Biological Resource Centre, is a distributed European Research Infrastructure Cluster, which provides and supports large scale and high quality marine science in Europe. It was established to bring together the distributed infrastructures and HR in European marine research groups to answer Europe's challenges related to food, health and global change. With 9 members (Belgium, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK), this ERIC offers access to a portfolio of research platforms, biological resources, analytical services, training, expert advice and data, to users from academia to industry. For Belgium, 5 Operators are involved: 4 Flemish (UGent, VLIZ, KU Leuven and UHasselt) and 1 federal (RBINS). With this proposal, the Flemish partners aim at delivering top-level services and to coordinate and expand the training component for EMBRC. By participating in EMBRC, Flanders will be on the front stage of the Blue Growth scenario, with fundamental and applied research and education activities in sustainable aquaculture, exploitation of living resources, blue biotechnology, ecosystem health and marine management." "Ecological diversification, recent evolution and speciation of Amphipoda in the polar regions: the case study of Eusirus genus." "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "Because of their long history, the polar regions and especially Antarctica are natural laboratories for evolutionary research. The diverse and specialized polar fauna has evolved during millions of years, and has survived past environmental changes including the glaciations. Given that certain parts of the polar regions are among the fastest warming regions on this planet, knowledge on how these organisms managed to survive climate changes in the past can help us to extrapolate to the future. Here, Eusirus amphipods (crustaceans) are chosen as model organisms because they occur on both poles, are very diverse and live in different habitats. Our knowledge on their ecology and biogeography is still very limited although they are an important component of the marine fauna. From the same amphipod specimens, genetic data, morphological data and ecological data (general ecology, trophic ecology) will be acquired. The evolutionary history of Eusirus amphipods will be reconstructed through time with phylogenetic and population genetic methods, and the obtained phylogenies will be used to map morphological and ecological diversity. This will ultimately reveal which evolutionary processes led to the current diversity of Eusirus amphipods, and if speciation events were constant through time or occurred in bursts. This kind of analyses will also test if there has been convergent evolution of Eusirus amphipods in the two polar regions." "Planarians activate their regenerative power to circumvent cancer: the meaning of stem cell potency and its micro-environment" "Karen SMEETS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "Regenerating tissues and organisms can circumvent the development of cancer. Regeneration induces stem cell proliferation, differentiation and migration to fully repair and regrow lost tissue. Whereas these processes are meticulously regulated during regeneration, the same processes are observed during carcinogenesis, yet their uncontrolled execution leads to malignant transformations. Pinpointing the underlying mechanisms as to how regeneration can control and even circumvent tumorigenesis, holds valuable information. I will investigate this linkage between regeneration and avoidance of cancer in Schmidtea mediterranea, a fresh-water planarian possessing the capacity to regenerate its entire body, which is attributed to a large pool of adult pluripotent stem cells. This planarian offers the opportunity to study the capacities of these stem cells and their niche in an in vivo system. It is hypothesized that the interplay between stem cells, their characteristics and their niche determines how this organism can successfully regenerate and circumvent tumorigenesis. Within this context, this project focuses on (1) the role of stem cell potency and their consequently characteristics and differentiation processes, and (2) ROS as modulators (upstream signals) of these stem cell responses during carcinogenic exposure. By combining an in vivo and in vitro approach, it is aimed to fully characterize the linkage between stem cell potency, differentiation status and ROS signaling." "Tracing parasite transfer between invasive Nile tilapia and native cichlids in Central Africa after anthropogenic introductions" "Tom ARTOIS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "Nile tilapia is one of the most important fish species in aquaculture in Africa. For this reason it has been introduced in many countries outside its native range. However, Nile tilapia can become a threat to the indigenous fish fauna, in part because they introduce alien parasites. Indeed, introduction of invasive species is regarded the second leading cause of species extinction and endangerment worldwide. The historical introduction of Nile tilapia in African countries is badly documented, and its impact on the native fish fauna in terms of parasite introduction is underexplored. In general these parasites are host-specific, but parasite host switching has been observed with detrimental consequences. In this research parasite host switching between Nile tilapia and native cichlids will be traced in the Congo Basin. In addition, the introduction routes of Nile tilapia and its parasites will be reconstructed. Both goals will be achieved by a combination of a more traditional parasitological (species composition, infection-intensity,etc.) and genetic approach (phylogeographical analysis, primer development, mitogenomics,etc.). The Congo Basin is of importance because Nile tilapia, here, is in contact with native cichlids, which are often closely related. Additionally, it is cultured in many places in the Congo Basin and millions of people depend on the local fisheries for their protein intake." "New alternative carcinogenic prediction assay using flatworm stem cell proliferation patterns." "Karen SMEETS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "Flatworms are promising model organisms for cancer research because of their experimentally accessible stem cells and remarkable regeneration capacity. Previously, we developed a non-mammalian, in vivo carcinogenic assay, which has the potential to bridge the gap between in vitro /cellular assays and mammalian models in carcinogenicity screenings. In the 'proof of concept'-project, we will validate the assay by increasing the number of tested compounds. Target markets and valorization strategies will be explored to in function of further implementation of our stem-cell-based assay." "Profiling stem-cell-specific activities in an in vivo biocompatibility study of mesoporous silica nanoparticles" "Karen SMEETS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "There is very little focus on the potential toxicity of manufactured nanoscale materials. Nevertheless, their toxicological profile may differ from materials of similar composition because of their small size and unique physicochemical properties. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles are an example of nanoscale material with extensive use in biomedical applications. Although considered safe for prolonged internalization in cells, several studies indicate cytotoxic effects in different cell types. In this project, we will assess the biocompatibility of silica nanoparticles, thereby focusing on their impact on stem cell functioning. Stem cells are an important target of several biomedical applications for which these nanoparticles are currently used. Planarians (flatworms with a high regenerative capacity) offer the possibility to assess stem cell responses in vivo, thereby taking into account the cellular niche. The kinetic and dynamic profiles of silica nanoparticles with a different composition will be evaluated, including single cell responses. The latter is highly relevant in toxicological research, as important responses can be masked due to tissue heterogeneity. By integrating these aspects in our study, as well as by investigating potential effects at different biological levels, we aim to profile the biological activity of silica nanoparticles. Moreover, the results of this study will aid in assessing the safety of these nanoparticles." "Molecular evolution and cophylogeny of rhabdocoel flatworms as a case study on the acquisition of endosymbiosis" "Tom ARTOIS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "Living in close association with another, non-related species is a large evolutionary step for any kind of organism. This is reflected in the huge changes in body plan which accompany this shift towards a symbiotic life style. But also at the genetic level, this so-called symbiosis has several effects. For instance, in organisms as diverse as plants, insects, fishes, and birds a symbiotic/parasitic life style is apparently correlated with remarkably rapid and profound genetic changes. It is however uncertain whether such effects always occur in symbiotic or parasitic species of all organismal groups alike. In order to test for this, I will study mitochondrial evolution in three unrelated taxa of endosymbiotic flatworms, living in invertebrate hosts in European seas. For this purpose, I will compare the mitochondrial genome of the endosymbionts and their freeliving relatives. A symbiotic lifestyle also largely influences the patterns of formation of new species. For instance, the speciation patterns in the endosymbionts might or might not reflect these of their hosts; other possibilities are for example that new species of symbiotic flatworms arise by colonising different host species, or that the same flatworm species is present in a large number of hosts. In order to investigate this, speciation patterns of hosts and endosymbionts will be compared in order to unravel in detail the evolutionary history of these intriguing animals." "Studying cancer prevention mechanisms in regenerative animals" "Karen SMEETS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "A delicate balance exists between the process of carcinogenesis and tissue regeneration. Regeneration-competent tissues and animals are able to prevent and counteract growth abnormalities and seem to be very resilient to chemical carcinogenesis. Therefore, we believe that regeneration processes offer a unique parallel context for modern cancer research. The underlying mechanisms on how regenerative animals can bypass carcinogenesis are still not known, but both processes share a lot of common molecular pathways. The majority of the already identified mechanisms is involved in successful and coordinated cell functioning and reproduction. The current project aims to identify and characterize new biomolecules by studying regenerative animals (i.e. planarians) while exposing them to carcinogenic compounds. We will focus on how regenerative forces contribute to the mechanisms planarians possess to circumvent the carcinogenic process." "Cooperation in connection with the financing in 2016 of the Flemish participation in the ESFRI project EMBRC" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "EMBRC is a distributed infrastructure and aims to: 1. Become a major European provider of marine biological research facilities, resources and services, 2. Secure the long-term maintenance and strategic development of the infrastructure to support top-level marine biological research and its applications, 3. Provide co-ordination and leadership which will catalyse research partnerships, and inform future funding initiatives and infrastructure requirements, 4. Foster mobility of European researchers between member states and between industry and academia, 5. Ensure standardisation of data collection, storage and transmission, workflows and training, 6. Develop a knowledge and technology transfer platform to help facilitate innovation and to support the blue economy by improving the conditions to generate an applied service or product from a discovery, 7. Advertise, promote and enhance training in marine science, 8. Identify and interact with important stakeholders at regional, national, European, international and global level. 9. Enhance communication between academia and industry, policy and the public." "Planarians activate their regenerative power to circumvent cancer: the meaning of stem cell potency, differentiation and upstream ROS signaling" "Karen SMEETS" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "Regenerating tissues and organisms can circumvent the development of cancer. Regeneration induces stem cell proliferation, differentiation and migration to fully repair and regrow lost tissue. Whereas these processes are meticulously regulated during regeneration, the same processes are observed during carcinogenesis, yet their uncontrolled execution leads to malignant transformations. Pinpointing the underlying mechanisms as to how regeneration can control and even circumvent tumorigenesis, holds valuable information. I will investigate this linkage between regeneration and avoidance of cancer in Schmidtea mediterranea, a fresh-water planarian possessing the capacity to regenerate its entire body, which is attributed to a large pool of adult pluripotent stem cells. This planarian offers the opportunity to study the capacities of these stem cells and their niche in an in vivo system. It is hypothesized that the interplay between stem cells, their characteristics and their niche determines how this organism can successfully regenerate and circumvent tumorigenesis. Within this context, this project focuses on (1) the role of stem cell potency and their consequently characteristics and differentiation processes, and (2) ROS as modulators (upstream signals) of these stem cell responses during carcinogenic exposure. By combining an in vivo and in vitro approach, it is aimed to fully characterize the linkage between stem cell potency, differentiation status and ROS signaling."