Research at BIO
The research activity of the Department of Life Sciences covers a very broad area; from genes and proteins to cellular processes, from the growth and reproduction of organisms to dynamics and structure of populations and ecosystems. Our research ranges from examining the basic processes of life to mapping how we can best manage nature's resources by studying the interplay between human activity and biological systems.
Main content
The research groups of BIO mainly conduct research within microbiology, marine and terrestrial ecology and evolutionary biology, fisheries, biodiversity, developmental biology in fish, aquaculture, deep-sea biology, fish health, environmental toxicology and paleoecology. We have an extensive activity within molecular biology that includes biomedicine, biophysics, structural studies, biochemical and molecular characterization of proteins, and functional studies of living model systems like bacteria, yeast, sebra fish and cell cultures.
We collect data in the field, on cruises at sea and in dry and wet laboratories, through experiments, observations and time series, and use methods in biostatistics, computational biology and bioinformatics.
The Department of Biological Sciences has the largest and strongest university research environment within marine biology and we have large and strong activities within ecology and molecular life sciences.
BIO's external milieu
The department has close cooperation with other groups at the University of Bergen and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, mainly the, Department of Earth Sciences, Geophysical Institute, Bergen Museum, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Sars Centre for Marine Molecular Biology and Computational Biology Unit (CBU)
BIO collaborates closely with other research institutes in the Bergen region, including the Institute of Marine Research (IMR)
Centres
BIO is involved in several centres at UiB:
- Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research
- Centre for Deep Sea Research
- Centre for Sustainable Area Management (CeSAM)
- Computational Biology Unit (CBU)
A Centre for Research-based Innovation:
- Sea Lice Research Centre. The centre's formal period of function ran out 2019.
and one centre for excellence in education:
- biocCEED. The centre's formal period of function ran out 2023.
