INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND AQUACULTURE (HCMR-IMBBC) | Assemble+

INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND AQUACULTURE (HCMR-IMBBC)

Overview

The Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBC) is one of the three institutes of HCMR, which is the Greek partner in ASSEMBLE Plus. It is based on the premises of HCMR  in Crete (Thalassokosmos). The main research activities of IMBBC are: genetics/genomics and biotechnology, aquaculture, marine biodiversity and ecosystem management, bioinformatics and e-Infrastructure, environmental chemistry and bioanalysis.

Ecosystems

  • Coastal ecosystems and pelagic ecosystems of the oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean
    • Coastal soft and hard substrates
    • Posidonia and algal meadows

 

Ecosystem access

  • Coastal research vessels  (On-site and remote service)
    • R/V Philia, a multidisciplinary research vessel for marine research in the Cretan Sea
    • Inflatable boat
  • SCUBA diving facilities  (On-site and remote service)
    • For access to coastal ecosystems of Crete (Cretan and Libyan Seas)
    • Team of certified divers that can dive on request
    • Users can accompany the divers if appropriately certified; equipment can be provided
    • Underwater imaging and sampling
  • Sampling equipment  (On-site and remote service)
    • Sediment (grabs, box corers, corers, frames)
    • Hard substrate (innovative sampling gear 'MANOSS')
    • Water column (plankton nets, Niskin bottles, CTDs)

 

Biological resources

  • Biobanks  (On-site and remote service)
    • DNA collections
    • Sample series from the Aegean and Ionian seas (since 1989)
  • Species collected upon request  (On-site and remote service)
    • Sampling of organisms from coastal habitats around Crete (Cretan and Libyan Seas)

 

Experimental facilities

  • Aquaria and tanks (On-site service)
    • Tanks and labs for experiments on aquafeed testing, fish reproduction and pathology
  • Dry labs (On-site and remote service)
    • Molecular biology lab, Ecology and taxonomy lab

 

Technology platforms

  • Bioassays  (On-site and remote service)
    • Antibacterial and antioxidant capacity
  • Imaging  (On-site and remote service)
    • Micro CT imaging (Skyscan 1172); underwater imaging, optical microscopy
  • Molecular biology and omics  (On-site and remote service)
    • Sanger sequencing (ABI3730)
    • MiSeq-Illumina: Library construction and sequencing for amplicons, transcriptomes, ddRAD and small genomes
    • MinION-Oxford Nanopore: Library construction and sequencing
  • Structural and chemical analysis  (On-site and remote service)
    • Targeted analysis of biomolecules and metabolites (e.g phyto-pigments, hormones, biotoxins, fatty acids) with LC-MS/MS and GC-MS

 

E-services

  • Data analysis tools and software  (On-site and remote service)
    • Bioinformatic pipelines for analysis of NGS data (transcriptome and small genome assembly, gene expression profiling, dd-RAD data analysis, DNA metabarcoding of prokaryotes and eukaryotes)
  • Data sets  (On-site and remote service)
    • Micro-CT scans and videos
    • Citizen science data (e.g. COMBER, CIGESMED)
    • LifeWatch Greece e-services and virtual labs (RvLab, MedOBIS vLab etc). This is open to anyone to use, and hence is not specifically an ASSEMBLE Plus service offer.

 

Expert advice

  • Experimental design  (On-site and remote service)
    • Expert advice on Mediterranean aquaculture (aquaculture, nutrition, diet formulation, reproduction, pathogens)
  • Biological sample identification  (On-site and remote service)
    • Invertebrate taxonomy (polychaetes, amphipods, decapods, sponges, invasive species)

 

Supporting facilities

  • In-house catering (On-site service)
    • Restaurant and cafeteria; hotels and B&Bs can be found close to the institute
  • Library services  (On-site service)
    • Online library and library facility

 

Acronym: 
IMBBC
Address: 
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
Thalassokosmos (former US Base at Gournes)
GR 71500 Hersonissos
Greece
E-mail: 
Liaison officer: Panagiotis Kasapidis ( ), cc to: 

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