As aquaculture continues its transition to a major food-producing sector, proper assessment and control of environmental impacts and food safety awareness are becoming increasingly important. Development and understanding of practical and validated tools is sorely needed in aquaculture for assessing nutritional status, metabolic and health conditions, in fish fed novel diets and to monitor the extend of environmental and biological impacts associated with farming operations.

Biomarkers & Bioassays provide an early sign of a change in an organism's physiological and health status and are able to monitor the extend of environmental and biological impacts associated with farming operations at various levels of biological complexity from molecular to organism and ecosystem levels.

Of particular value are biomarkers & bioassays that precede the onset of metabolic disturbance or predict the capacity of the cultured organism to cope with dietary, rearing and disease treatment age-related stresses and impacts on the environment.

IMBBC has developed and applies biomarkers & bioassays as tools to assess nutrient requirements and to metabolically phenotype the nutritionally mediated effects of feeds, rearing systems, and disease treatments on health and performance status in farming species and the environment.

Specific research areas include: