This August marks the arrival of two new post-doctoral researchers to the Wilson lab.  John Eme and Casey Mueller have joined the lab to work on our whitefish project.  Both come from recent post-doctoral positions at the University of North Texas.

John got his PhD in Biology from the University of California, Irvine and has a strong research interest in cardiopulmonary physiology.  He is a comparative biologist at heart (pun intended) and you can see that in the list of species he has worked on.

Casey hails from Australia and received her PhD in Comparative Physiology from the University of Adelaide.  Her physiological research emphasis is on developing organisms and she will provide great support to all of the whitefish work with her training in developmental biology.

Welcome to the Wilson lab and we are looking forward to having your here for the next two years!  Please read more about Casey and John, and the rest of the lab, on our people pages.

After a GREAT year at the Biological and Environmental Science Department at the University of Gothenburg, I am back at McMaster University.  I can’t thank my Swedish colleagues enough for such a wonderful year.  First, the CYP lab, headed by Dr. Malin Celander, was a great place to spend a year and I so enjoyed working with Johanna Grans and Britt Wassmur.  Johanna taught me how to cannulate a trout and prepare primary hepatocyte cultures, an in vitro assay tool that I have been looking to bring into my lab for a while.  I was fortunate enough to spend time at the wonderful Sven Loven Marine Science Centre at Kristineberg and work with Ola Svensson and Eva-Lotta Blom.  Our research on sand gobies taught me a lot about a new species and completing behavioural experiments.

I must say that I was ready to come back home.  My students need some of my time and two are preparing to complete their theses.  I think they were happy to see me too! My welcome back included a few surprises, of course.  Like the shark in my office. I am not sure the photo does it justice.  It was festive (note the hat!) but also HUGE!  So large that my meeting table couldn’t hold it and it needed an extra chair and straps to keep it in place.  I’ve been told it will have a new home today….

I am currently based in Fiskebackskil, Sweden at the Kristineberg Marine Station.  I came here to start a new collaboration on sand gobies with Malin Celander and Ola Svensson, both in the Biological and Environmental Sciences Department at Gothenburg University.  Malin has been my host for my research leave.  Fiskebackskil sits on the Gullmarfjord, a deep water fjord that allows for an extensive collection of diverse marine species.  We are working on sand gobies, a species that comes into the coastal beach areas for breeding between May to midsummer.  They are a fascinating species as the male builds a nest, typically from shells and then courts a female to get her to lay a clutch.  The mucus they put inside the nest has sperm, provides a sticky surface for the eggs, and has anti-microbial components.  Yet, it is not contain the same protein as used by stickleback (spiggin) for their mucus.  The reproductive behaviour of the male includes nest building, courtship displays, sound production, and is followed by parental care.  There are alternative reproductive tactics in this species too.  Small males can forgo building a nest and sneak mating from a parental male.

Collecting sand gobies requires hand trawling shallow waters, as in the pictures below.  note the highly scientific equipment involved, like the pink child’s floating ring!  Fishing can be a family affair and the sorting involves having a great time at the beach with our kids.

We are completing endocrine disruption experiments on females this summer and hope to continue to work on this species for several years to come.

The 17th PRIMO meeting was recently held in Faro, Portugal and Mike Galus and Joanna Wilson attended and gave presentations.  PRIMO, or Pollutant Responses in Marine Organisms, is a biannual meeting that is one of my favourites.  The science is always exciting and it is a wonderful, smaller meeting.  Mike Galus presented his most recent research on the effects of parental exposure of zebrafish to gemfibrozil and carbamazepine to the reproductive success of their offspring.  His research results were very well received and he received one of ten student awards to help cover his costs for travel.  Mike’s award was sponsored by ICES, a global organization for ocean sustainability.  Joanna presented research being performed by Derek Alsop on the function of zebrafish CYP enzymes and the use of high throughput screening to assess CYP function.  The next PRIMO meeting will be held in 2015 in Trondheim, Norway.  I can’t wait.

I have spent the last 3 glorious days in Tjarno, Sweden at the CeMEB assembly.  CeMEB is the Center for Marine Evolutionary Biology, a center that I have recently joined here at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.  The center is a Linnaeus Center of Excellence and I saw a lot of excellent science at the meeting.  I look forward to continuing to interact and collaborate with this group.  I presented some of the current research being done by Chris Dejong, an MSc student and bioinformatician in our group.  The talk on cytochrome P450 genes in the sand goby was well received. Congratulations Chris on some very nice work!

The meeting was held at the Sven Loven Marine Station and it is an impressive facility, one of two marine stations for GU.  They are very lucky to have such great infrastructure at the university.

The marine station at Tjarno

Fishing for sand gobies

Science discussions on the beach with John Croft and Malin Celander

Found a few sand gobies but it is early in the season

The invasive and native oyster side by side