We are extremely grateful to all funders and partners (past and present) that have supported our research
Research projects:
Nov 2022 to April 2026, Competitive PhD project funded jointly by the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) and Pharmaq (Zoetis): "Cross-national genomic surveillance of viral pathogens to support disease control in Atlantic salmon aquaculture". Award value: £147,000
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May 2022 to April 2025, BBSRC Responsive grant: "Immune cell dynamics predictive of vaccine protection in Atlantic salmon"
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dan Macqueen. Award value of £500,839. Collaboration with Prof. Sam Martin (University of Aberdeen) and MSD Animal Health.
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Dec 2021 to 2025. Research Council of Norway grant: "COOLFISH: Improving Atlantic salmon health and welfare by metabolic programming”. Award value: £215k (of approx. £1M award) to Prof. Dan Macqueen. Project led by Dr Erik Burgerhout (Nofima, Norway)
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Jan 2021 to July 2021. Data Driven Innovation BEACON Building Back Better Open Call: COVID-19 Response & Accelerating Economic and Social Recovery in Edinburgh & South East Scotland. A data-driven single cell sequencing approach to support innovation in Atlantic salmon aquaculture. Award value: £50k. With Dr Richard Taylor and Dr Rose Ruiz Daniels (Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh).
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May 2019 to April 2023. European Commission Horizon 2020 consortium project: ‘AQUA-FAANG: genome functional annotation supporting sustainable European aquaculture’. See: https://www.aqua-faang.eu/eurofaang.html
Principal Investigator: Prof. Sigbjorn Lien (NMBU, Norway). Deputy project coordinator and WP6 leader: Prof. Dan Macqueen. Award value: €455,000 to Macqueen. Total project value: €6M.
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Jan 2019 to July 2019. BBSRC Institute Strategic Programmes Pump Priming Grant: 'Advancing animal genomics by cost-effective linked-read sequencing'
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen (Roslin). Collaborators: Prof. Ross Houston and Prof. Mick Watson, the Roslin Institute. Award value: £12,000
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Jan 2019 to Dec 2023. BBSRC Aquaculture Initiative Consortium project (BB/S004181/1): ‘AquaLeap: Innovation in Genetics and Breeding to Advance UK Aquaculture Production’.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Ross Houston, the Roslin Institute. Co Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen (Roslin). Award value: £332,487 to Macqueen including £40k contribution from the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre. Total award value: approx. £1.5M.
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Nov 2018 to Aug 2022. Grant from the Research Council of Norway: ‘TRANSPOSE: Transposable elements as agents of genome evolution and adaptation following a recent whole genome duplication’.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Sigbjørn Lien (Norwegian University of Life Sciences). Funded project partner: Dr Dan Macqueen (Roslin). Award value: £107,177 to Macqueen.
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Below awarded while based at the University of Aberdeen (before Oct 2018)
Jan to Dec 2018. NERC pilot grant (NBAF1089): Iso-Seq for improved annotation and analysis of duplicated salmonid genomes
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen. Named researcher: Mr Manu Kumar Gundappa
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Feb 2018 to Jan 2020. BBSRC responsive mode grant for 24 month project: (BB/R008442/1): Understanding the relationship between gill disease and immune status.
Principal Investigator: Christopher J. Secombes, FRSE, Co-investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen (Aberdeen)
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Jan 2018 to Dec 2020. BBSRC responsive mode grant for 36 month project (BB/R008973/1): Improving resistance to infectious salmon anaemia using genome editing: Novel approaches to tackling viral disease in aquaculture’.
Principal Investigators: Prof. Ross Houston (The Roslin Institute) and Prof. Sam Martin (University of Aberdeen). Co-investigators: Dr Dan Macqueen (Aberdeen), Prof. Christopher Whitelaw (Roslin) and Dr Simon Lillico (Roslin). Researcher co-investigator: Dr Carola Dehler (Aberdeen).
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Oct 2017 to Sept 2019. Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) award for 24 month project: Clinical nutrition and the treatment of Atlantic salmon gill diseases.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Sam Martin; co-investigators: Dr Dan Macqueen, Dr Alex Douglas and Prof. Chris Secombes (University of Aberdeen). Partnered with BioMar (lead industrial partner) and Scottish Sea Farms.
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April 2017 – March 2021. BBSRC International Partnering Award (BB/P02582X/1): Canada: Functional annotation of the Atlantic salmon genome, translation to improved health and performance for Aquaculture.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Sam Martin (University of Aberdeen). Co-investigators: Dr Dan Macqueen (University of Aberdeen) & Dr Ross Houston (Roslin Institute, Edinburgh). International Partners: Prof. Willie Davidson (Simon Fraser University, BC), Prof. Ben Koop (University of Victoria, BC) and Prof. Matt Rise (Memorial University, Newfoundland).
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April 2015 to March 2017. BBSRC Research Grant (BB/M026345/1): Development of a proteomic platform to facilitate the generation of new and improved vaccines for use in aquaculture.
Principal Investigators: Dr Dan Macqueen & Helen Dooley (University of Maryland). Co-investigator: Dr David Stead (Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen). Collaboration with Prof. Christopher Secombes FRSE (University of Aberdeen).
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October 2016 to September 2020. BBSRC EASTBIO CASE PhD Studentship (BB/M010996/1): Next generation approaches to characterise viral diseases affecting Atlantic salmon.
PhD Student: Michael Gallagher. Lead supervisor: Dr Dan Macqueen. CASE partner: Marine Scotland Science. Co-supervisor: Dr Iveta Matejusova (Marine Scotland Science).
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October 2016 to September 2020. BBSRC EASTBIO PhD Studentship (BB/M010996/1): Development of a proteomics platform to monitor immune responses in non-model vertebrates.
PhD student: Fiona Bakke. Lead supervisor: Dr Dan Macqueen. Co-supervisors: Dr Helen Dooley (University of Maryland, USA); Dr David Stead (Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen).
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October 2015 to September 2019. BBSRC industrial CASE PhD studentship (BB/M016455/1): Characterization & exploitation of copy number variation in Atlantic salmon.
PhD Student: Alicia Bertolotti. Lead supervisor: Dr Dan Macqueen. In collaboration with Xelect Ltd, a company involved in development of genetic markers for broodstock selection in fish aquaculture. Co-academic supervisor: Prof. Sam Martin.
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Oct 2015 to September 2018. Elphinstone PhD Scholarship: The role of whole genome duplication in the diversification of fish
PhD student: Manu Kumar Gundappa. Supervisor: Dr Dan Macqueen. With additional funding support granted by a stipend scholarship from the Government of Karnataka, India.
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November 2014 to March 2018. PhD studentship funded by the University of Aberdeen: Improved flesh growth in farmed salmon – a functional proteomics approach.
PhD Student: Dwight Causey. Lead supervisor: Dr Dan Macqueen. Co-supervisor: Prof. Sam Martin. 50% sponsored through the Aberdeen Developmental Trust, 50% through Elphinstone Scholarship.
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April 2016 to March 2020. Research Council of Norway grant: The effect of narrow banded LED light on development and growth performance
Named international collaborator: Dr Dan Macqueen. Principal Investigator: Prof. Jon Vidar Helvik (University of Bergen, Norway)
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April 2015 to March 2019. Research Council of Norway grant: Light & Salt – thyroid hormone deiodinase paralogs & the evolution of complex life-history strategy’.
Named international collaborator: Dr Dan Macqueen. Principal Investigator: Prof. David Hazlerigg (University of Tromsø)
Past Awards:
Aug 2018. Collaborative funding from Vaxxinova (Vaccine Company). 'Sequencing of salmonid alphavirus genomes isolated from cell culture'. Award Value: £3,750.
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen. Named researcher: Mr Michael Gallagher (PhD student)
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July to Aug 2017. MASTS Small Grant: ‘Nanopore sequencing the causative virus of infectious salmon anaemia – a problem disease for Scottish salmon aquaculture’. Award value: £3,000.
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen. Named researcher: Mr Michael Gallagher (PhD student)
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Jul 2017 to Aug 2017. £1,500. MASTS Small Grant: “Novel sequencing approaches to characterize viral diseases in salmon aquaculture: an undergraduate research experience”. For one month undergraduate placement.
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen.
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April 2014 to May 2015. Royal Society Research Grant: A joint proteomic-transgenic investigation of intracellular protein signalling linking growth to immunity and nutritional status in fish.
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen. In collaboration with Dr Bob Devlin (Fisheries and Oceans Canada), Dr David Stead (University of Aberdeen) and Prof. Sam Martin (University of Aberdeen).
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July to September 2015. BBSRC EASTBIO Research Experience Placement: Characterizing sites of myoglobin expression in teleost hearts.
10 week research placement for Mike Gallagher; supervised by Dr Dan Macqueen.
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January to June 2014. MASTS visiting fellowship: Interaction between growth and stress signalling pathways in skeletal muscle of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).
Principal Investigators: Dr Dan Macqueen and Prof. Ian A. Johnston (University of St Andrews). With Dr Eduardo Fuentes (visiting fellow) (Universidad Andres Bello, Chile).
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Jan 2013 to Dec 2013. NERC Pilot Grant (NBAF704): Lineage specific evolution by unresolved diploidization after whole genome duplication.
Principal Investigator: Dr Dan Macqueen
