Blog Posts - DEROME LABORATORY

New PhD Opportunities @ Derome Lab

2/20/2017

NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE: May 31st, 2017 -- The Derome Laboratory has an exceptional opportunity available for two PhD students to join our research team, in the context of the Sentinel North program (https://www.ulaval.ca/en/sentinel-north.html). Sentinel North aims to help us monitor and prepare for changes in northern environments using state-of-the-art technologies and intervention strategies in the pursuit of sustainable health and development.

PhD #1 Arctic Char Microbiota Project

PhD #2 Zebrafish-Microbiota Model

To apply, please forward a current CV, a cover letter and two support letters via e-mail to Nicolas DEROME (nicolas.derome@bio.ulaval.ca) by May 31, 2017.

-- Learn more about the Sentinel North Research Strategy below --

Northern ecosystems are facing unprecedented assaults resulting from direct (e.g. industrial activities, such as mining and hydroelectricity) and indirect (global warming) anthropogenic activities, thus amplifying the risk of disturbing essential ecosystem services mediated by microbial communities (nitrogen cycle, primary production) and contaminate the whole food web. Because gut microbiota is critically implicated in modulating the host response to contaminants and toxins, such bio-accumulated contaminants (e.g. iron, mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, arsenic and manganese) are expected to have serious consequences on major host functions such as immune response, energetic performance and development. Furthermore, there are enough results suggesting that climate change could alter stages and rates of development of endemic pathogens, modify host resistance, and result in changes in the physiology of host-pathogen interactions. Because microbiota constitutes the first immune barrier by both producing specific antimicrobial compounds and outcompete invasive microbes for host resources, it is crucial to develop a sentinel model for studying skin and gut microbiota resilience when facing allochthonous pathogens in controlled conditions.

Come see us @ RAQ Quebec 2016

11/17/2016

We will give talks and poster presentations at the 2016 General Meeting of Ressources Aquatiques Quebec, the largest group of Quebec researchers in fisheries and aquaculture. The meeting will be held on Nov. 22nd and 23rd at Hotel Quartier, Quebec City.

Bachar Cheaib Experimental evolution of the yellow perch microbiome under sublethal exposure to heavy metals. (Poster)
Hamza Seghouani Endogenous bacteria from walleye (Sander vitreus), with probiotic potential against Flavobacterium columnare. (Poster)
François-Étienne Sylvain You are what you eat : get mature faster by foraging on your parents, the discus fish example. (Poster)
Jeff Gauthier Probiotic-based therapeutic tools against Aeromonas salmonicida, a major salmonid pathogen. (Talk; Nov. 23rd @ 2h30 PM).

Team Highlights - François-Étienne Sylvain

8/30/2016

François-Étienne Sylvain, M.Sc. student in our laboratory, won two awards at the 16th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology:

Best Poster Award;
JW Costerton Award (for research that best evolves new theories in microbial ecology and wider interdisciplinary significance).

F-E's poster discussed the unique properties of the Discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus), in which the skin mucus feeding behavior at the beginning of their life cycle triggers mammalian-like gut microbiota colonization patterns.

Congratulations F-É !

Team Highlights - Camille Lavoie

8/30/2016

Source: FQSA.ca

The 2016 Pierre-Michel-Fontaine scholarship ($1000) from the Fondation Saumon and the Féderation Québécoise du Saumon Atlantique was awarded to Camille Lavoie, an student from our research group, for her undergraduate research project on the microbiota of farmed juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) meant for stocking.

For more information about Camille's award and her research, please click here (French).

Congratulations Camille !

New Publication

8/18/2016

The amazonian fish tambaqui (Colossoma macroponum) can survive in waters where pH values are as low as 3. Image: Wikimedia Commons // CC-BY-SA 3.0

.Our research group and colleagues from the INPA (Brazil) recently published an article in Scientific Reports:

"pH drop impacts differentially skin and gut microbiota of the Amazonian fish tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum)"
Authors: François-Étienne Sylvain, Bachar Cheaib, Martin Llewellyn, Tiago Gabriel Correia, Daniel Barros Fagundes, Adalberto Luis Val & Nicolas Derome.

Congratulations to all !

New References on Opportunistic Pathogens of Fish

7/31/2016

Two review chapters authored by our team and colleagues were recently published in Volume 3 of the Advances in Environmental Microbiology series, which is dedicated to opportunistic pathogenicity :

Chapter 4: Bacterial Opportunistic Pathogens of Fish;
Chapter 5: Fungal Secondary Invaders of Fish;

In those chapters, the current knowledge of bacterial and fungal opportunistic diseases in fish is discussed, with prime examples of opportunistic pathogens of special interest in aquaculture (Aeromonas spp., Vibrio spp., Saprolegnia spp., Loma salmonae, etc.).

In both chapters, we stress the importance of studying crosstalks between host, microbiota and environmental factors; not only for a better understanding of opportunistic pathogens, but also to help developing novel strategies for mitigating those diseases.

Team Highlights - Jeff Gauthier

6/14/2016

Congratulations to Jeff Gauthier who received a doctoral scholarship from the Fonds de recherche Québec - Nature et technologies.

Jeff's Ph. D. will allow research and development of endogenous probiotic-based therapeutic tools against opportunistic infections in salmonid aquaculture.

Team Highlights - Sarah El Khoury

3/29/2016

Sarah El Khoury, Ph.D. student in our research group, won two prizes for her poster presentation on probiotic-based therapeutic strategies against honeybee parasitic diseases at the CRIBIQ Colloquium on Biosecurity and Alternatives to Antimicrobials in Animal Production. Sarah won:

Poster Excellence Contest (CAD $500);
Public's Favorite Poster (CAD $100).

Congratulations Sarah !

Derome Lab @ CRIBIQ 2016 - Come see us!

3/14/2016

Students from our research group will attend the CRIBIQ Symposium on Biosecurity and Alternatives to Antibiotics in Animal Production (March 15th and 16th, Orford, Quebec, Canada). Here are the posters that will be presented by us (titles translated from French):

Jeff Gauthier (Derome Lab, U. Laval)
FishProbio: Alternative and sustainable stra-tegy against Aeromonas salmonicida, a major opportunistic pathogen of farmed salmonids.
Sarah El Khoury (Derome Lab, U. Laval)
Endogenous probiotics as an alternative strategy for disease control in domestic honeybees (Apis mellifera mellifera).

Aquaponics Research in Canadian TV Spotlight

1/7/2016

Research from Grant Vandenberg, Martine Dorais and Nicolas Derome on aquaponics will soon be broadcasted on public Canadian television. (Radio-Canada: January 9th, 5 PM)

Aquaponics is a unique blend of agriculture and fish farming, in which the waste water from the fish basins are reused as a water source and fertilizer for plants. Plants cultivated in such a system benefit from the unique fertilizer and biocontrol properties of the used water.