Sara Jorge, a PhD student in the Doctoral Program in Veterinary Sciences at ICBAS- Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, won the Best Student Poster Award at the European Aquaculture Conference 2023 in Vienna, Austria.
Her award-winning work proposes less invasive methods for measuring cortisol in zebra fish and involves validating the use of mucus from the skin of adult zebra fish to measure cortisol after stress. The study concluded that mucus is indeed a good minimally invasive and non-terminal matrix for measuring cortisol after acute stress, but is inconclusive in the case of chronic stress, which requires further studies.
“This recognition of the work I’ve been doing together with my supervising team shows that we’re on the right track to drive this positive change in research and in the aquaculture industry,” said the student, who is carrying out her research in the “Laboratory Animal Science” group, under the supervision of i3S researcher Ana Valentim, and co-supervision of Luís Félix, from UTAD, and Benjamín Costas, from CIIMAR.
