The Artemia Laboratory – the brine shrimp as a model system

About Aremia

Artemia is an aquatic invertebrate commonly used as live feed in fish and shrimp aquaculture. In recent years, it has also become a widely accepted model organism across various biological disciplines. As a research model, Artemia offers a versatile platform for both basic and applied studies in aquaculture and life sciences.

Advantages of Artemia as a model system

• Small size and easy handling
• Low cost
• Short generation time and fast testing cycles
• High throughput with large numbers of replicates
• Continuous availability of experimental animals
• Possibility to culture under germ-free conditions
• Fully sequenced genome
• Realistic whole-organism responses
• Suitable for molecular tools: RNAi, qPCR, immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry, microscopy

 Our Services

Testing large numbers of bioactive compounds directly on fish is often time-consuming, costly, and labour-intensive. Using the Artemia-based screening system, we can run high-throughput bioassays that help identify promising compounds or combinations before proceeding to more resource-intensive validation trials in fish.

High-throughput screening of live organisms:

We offer testing of:

• Bioactive compounds from plants and microbes
• Pathogenic bacteria
• Probiotics and prebiotics
• Yeast and yeast-based products
• Microplastic pollutants and other toxic substances
• Single-cell protein
• By-products from processed organic waste
• Feed additives

Genetic and epigenetic studies:

• Short generation time
• Use of both bisexual and parthenogenetic populations
• Genetically standardised trials (common garden experiments)

Microbiological studies:

• Germ-free and non-germ-free Artemia lines
• Studies of gut microbiota and microbial interactions

Contact Us

Are you interested in using Artemia as a model organism or looking for a potential collaboration?