Dr. Huyben is the Assistant Professor of Aquaculture at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He completed his PhD at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden with a focus on yeast as a protein source and impacts on the blood physiology and gut microbiome of farmed rainbow trout and Arctic charr. Since then he pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Stirling within the Institute of Aquaculture where he investigated environmental stressors and omega-3 fatty acids requirements of farmed Atlantic salmon. He has also collaborated on aquaculture projects in Norway, Finland, France, Italy, and across Canada with a range of research on fish farming technologies, aqua-feeds, and pathogen control. Since June 2020, Dr. Huyben is employed to contribute 40% to research, 40% to education, and 20% to industry liaison between the Canadian/Ontario aquaculture sector and the University of Guelph.

Shuowen is completing a Ph.D. at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science on environmental effects on wild and farmed Atlantic salmon and is co-supervised by Dr. Huyben. She aims to investigate how environmental and host factors shape the gut microbiome and their impact on lipid metabolism in salmonid fishes. Her research involves ranking the significance of environmental and host-associated factors with a meta-analysis, quantifying the production of nutrients from microbes isolated in vitro, determining dietary effects of feeding probiotics on the microbiota in farmed salmon and researching genetic effects on the gut microbiome of different families of wild and hatchery-reared salmon. For more, please visit Shuowen Cao.

Email: shuowen@uoguelph.ca

Carmi is a MSc Thesis student in Dr. Huyben’s lab, investigating the effects of a partial insect diet on the growth and gut health of rainbow trout. Black soldier flies are important to the agriculture industry as a sustainable protein source in animal feeds. Carmi’s research looks at parameters such as growth, microbiome diversity, and immune function to determine an optimal level of insect meal included in the diets of rainbow trout. This will inform feed producers and farmers on how to utilize insect meal in order to raise the healthiest, most robust, and fastest-growing fish. For more, please visit Carmi Riesenbach.

Email: riesenbi@uoguelph.ca

Junyu was involved with a BSc project in the W22 semester as part of the Research in Animal Biology I (ANSC*4700) course advised by Dr. Huyben. His project focused on the effects of feeding insect meal, pre- and probiotics, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) on zebrafish’s gut health. Junyu also worked as a summer research assistant in Huyben lab, and he started an MSc by thesis as an extension onto his BSc project with zebrafish in the F22 semester. For more, please visit Junyu Zhang

Email: jzhang48@uoguelph.ca

Cody was involved with a BSc project in the F21 and W22 semesters as part of the Research in Animal Biology (ANSC*4700/4710) courses advised by Dr. Huyben. His project focused on developing in vitro methods to simulate the fish gut using a chemostat. In the W23 semester, Cody started a MSc by thesis as an extension of his BSc project as well as investigating the effects of insects and yeast on the growth performance and microbiome of rainbow trout.

Email: cander23@uoguelph.ca

Samantha was involved in a BSc project in the W23 semester as a part of the Research in Animal Biology (ANSC*4700) course advised by Dr. Huyben, where she focused on characterizing the gut microbiome of rainbow trout fed insects. She has also worked for a semester as a technician for the Huyben lab. Starting in the S24 semester, Samantha will begin working on her MSc by thesis which focuses on dietary addition of prebiotics and minerals to trout in stressful temperature conditions. 

Email: sbezner@uoguelph.ca

Maddie started as an MSc by coursework student in F22 and her project focused on the effect of insect diets on the immune response of rainbow trout. She performed RNA extractions and determined gene expression using qPCR. Maddie was also involved in nutritional analyses and sampling fish farms in Ontario. Maddie graduated after the S23 semester.

Current position: PhD in Nutrition, Memorial University of NFLD

Gita was a S22 semester URA (Undergraduate Research Assistant) and helped graduate students with an experiment feeding insects to trout as well as redesigning the Huyben Lab and Aquaculture centre websites. She was involved with a BSc project (IBIO*4521) focused on improving RNA-sequencing methodologies to look at advanced gene expression in fish. Gita graduated after the W23 semester.

Current position: MSc in Fisheries Management, Dalhousie University

Isha is involved in a BSc project looking to improve 16S microbiome pipelines for fish as part of ANSC*4700 and 4710 in the F22 and W23 semesters.

Email: ishaka@uoguelph.ca

Yubing is a MSc coursework student and her project focused on investigating the effects of diet on the metabolism and immune response of lake whitefish along with Rebecca Lawson. Yubing helped collect several tissues from lake whitefish and perform qPCR to look at dietary effects on gene expression. Yubing graduated after the S22 semester.

Current position: PhD candidate, University of Waterloo

Elizabeth completed a URA on making lake whitefish diets in the S21 semester. She also completed a BSc project in the ANSC*4700 course that looked at chitin extraction methods for fish diets in the W22 semester. Elizabeth graduated after the W22 semester.

Current position: Hatchery technician, Izumi Aquaculture