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Damian Moran
2010- Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at Lund University, Sweden. Project: The Metabolic Cost of Vision in Mexican Cavefish.
2007-2010. Postdoctoral Researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. Project: CO2 in Land-based Aquaculture Systems.
2002-2007. PhD at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Project: The Ontogeny of Metabolism in Cultured Yellowtail Kingfish.
1999-2000. MSc at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Project: The Nutritional Ecology of the Silver Drummer (Kyphosus sydneyanus).
1996-1998. BSc, University of Auckland, New Zeeland.
Current research:
The Metabolic Cost of Vision in Mexican Cavefish
Mexican cavefish are a fantastic species to use to study eyes. There are populations that live in the surface rivers in north-eastern Mexico that have eyes and can see, and there are populations that live in caves which lost the ability to see because their eye does not develop.
The eyed and eyeless forms can interbreed to form hybrids with varying degrees of eye development.
Using oxygen microelectrodes and blood microflow meters, we will attempt to measure the oxygen consumption rate of the eye in pure and hybrid forms. This will tell us how much energy it costs to maintain an eye in this species. The techniques we develop should be readily transferable to other vertebrates and possibly invertebrates. Such information can help with evolutionary questions as to whether energy use is an important factor in determining eye size or structure.
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Publisher: Department of Biology
Last modified 16 Jan 2012
Damian Moran
Postdoc
Functional zoology
Phone:
+46 46-2229582
E-mail:
Damian.Moran@biol.lu.se
