Research Projects

Cultured Mollusks

Culturing conch, oysters, and other mollusks

Vanessa Haley-Benjamin
Newcastle University, United Kingdom

cell

media

Overview

Who: Vanessa Haley-Benjamin, Ph.D. student in biosciences

When: 2020 – Present

Institutes: Newcastle University, United Kingdom

Supervisors: Che Connon, professor of tissue engineering at Newcastle University

Summary

Vanessa is culturing molluscan (i.e. conch, oyster, etc.) tissue in vitro. Since little work has been done with mollusks in the past, Vanessa’s research will provide fundamental knowledge on how to culture molluscan cells – what goes in the media, what protocols work best, and how the cells grow and differentiate.

Why This Matters

Mollusks are very economically and culturally important for many coastal communities but, due to overfishing, are in danger of becoming extinct. Vanessa hopes to use cellular agriculture to provide a more sustainable option to seafood production and relieve fishing pressure on local ocean ecosystems.