Dr Manuela Truebano

Qualifications

Professional membership

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (since 2015)
• Member of:
• Genetics Society
• Cell Stress Society International
• Society of Experimental Biology

Roles on external bodies

• Senior editor: Cell Stress and Chaperones (official journal of the Cell Stress Society International, Springer-Nature)

Teaching interests

• Marine Molecular Biology (module leader)
• Ecophysiology of Marine Animals (module leader) 
• Conservation Physiology 
• Marine Biology field courses (module leader of stage 2 Experimental Marine Biology field course)

• Truebano M. & C. Munn. 2015. An Evaluation of the Use of Video Tutorials as Supporting Tools for Teaching Laboratory Skills in Biology. Practice and Evidence of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 10(2):121-135.

Research interests

I am a marine biologist with a broad interest in ecophysiology and evolution. My research integrates whole organismal physiology and -omic approaches to investigate the mechanisms underpinning physiological responses to changes in environmental drivers, mainly temperature and oxygen, over different timescales. Much of my research is therefore framed under the context of global climate change and addresses whether aquatic animals have the capacity to cope with and adapt to the current rapid changes in their environment.

Current postdoctoral researchers:

• Rodrigo Lorenzo

Current PhD students:

• Caitlin McAndry (DoS) "Adapting to climate change: transgenerational acclimation as a mechanism of rapid evolution"

• Ahmed Abbas (DoS) "The challenge of securing future food production for aquaculture species: maternal, developmental and adaptational responses to multistressors"

• Chris Dwane (DoS) “Assessing the vulnerability of aquatic invertebrates to climate change”

•  Ziad Ibbini (2nd supervisor) "Assessing Sensitivity to Fluctuating Temperatures in Marine Animals"

• Eleanor Gilbert (2nd supervisor) "Characterising the function of the apical organ in the early diverging metazoan Nematostella vectensis"

• Ali Noth (4th supervisor)  "Mitigating the impacts of climate change, emerging disease and invasive species on native amphibian populations in the UK"

• Ellis Moloney (3rd supervisor) "Extremophiles in a changing world: the mechanistic bases of stress resistance in rotifers and tardigrades"

Other research

I have supervised >60 undergraduate and masters students. Examples of project supervision include the following topics:

• Transgenerational plasticity and its role in responding to environmental change
• Responses to thermal stress over different time scales
• Ontogeny of the cellular stress response
• Thermal adaptation across intertidal gradients
• Mechanisms of cross-tolerance between stressors
• Environmental factors influencing hybrid zone dynamics
• The role of parental and developmental environments in transgenerational plasticity
• Thermal adaptation across latitudes
• Molecular mechanisms underpinning responses to moderate and severe stress

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

• Michael Collins, PhD (2019). "Effect on temperature on hypoxia thresholds in aquatic invertebrates" 
  
• George Mason, ResM (2021). "The role of environmental temperature in immunocompetence and disease susceptibility in bivalves"
  

Grants & contracts

Reports & invited lectures

• Responses to environmental stress across timescales: an ecophysiology approach. British Ecological Society Aquatic Ecology group meeting, September 2021.
  

Conferences organised