Workshop on reproductive biotechnology and cryobanking in aquatic species

On April 2021, from 7th to 9th, the UAlg team organized a workshop entitled “Workshop on reproductive biotechnology and cryobanking in aquatic species”. It was hold in Faro, Portugal, where several ponents from diverse institutions gave very interesting lectures about reproductive and cryopreservation techniques via zoom platform. Dr. Elsa Cabrita and her team were in charge of moderating the event and also conducted the practical sessions.

Among the invited speakers there were several researchers involved in EBB. Dr. Ibon Cancio, from PiE-UPV/EHU, gave a talk entitled “Biobanking and marine culture collections: access and benefit sharing obligations in the utilisation of genetic resources”. In it he explained the main aspects of ABS regulations and how these can affect access to marine biological resources. And, Dr. Estefanía Paredes, from the CIM-UVigo, gave a talk entitled “Cryopreservation in molluscs & echinoderms”, in which she explained the main aspects of the conservation of these organisms. In addition, Dr. Paredes presented the “Video-Session V: Laser techniques for thawing embryos”, where the latest techniques for the recovery of frozen samples were shown in a visual way.

Apart from this, the day 9th was the practical training day of the workshop where a total of 20 people attended these training classes, which consisted on a visit to zebrafish facilities, sperm collection from seabream and Portuguese oyster, and cryopreservation of these samples using several methods. Besides, testicular dissection and spermatogonia collection were performed including cryopreservation of these cells for conducting transplantations in the future.

Overall, this workshop helped to disseminate some of main aspects of the project and contributed to the capitalization of the project.