Diego Robledo: "In the future, we will be able to transfer characteristics from one species to another to improve their quality of life"
What if we could eradicate diseases in fish and other species? At first glance, this possibility might seem like a mere daydream. A breakthrough reserved for the very distant future. But thanks to researchers like Diego Robledo, it is much closer to becoming a reality.
Diego's career began at the University of Santiago de Compostela. In its classrooms, he consolidated his interest in genetics and had his first contact with the world of research in the ACUIGEN group. After graduating in Biology and obtaining his PhD in Genetics, he moved to Scotland, landing at the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh with a Newton International Fellowship of the Royal Society.
In the last decade, he has produced more than 70 scientific publications on aquaculture genomics and genetics. The undisputed protagonist of his research has been the Atlantic salmon, but he has also closely studied other species, such as turbot, carp, clams, mussels and rainbow trout. The goal? To improve their disease resistance.
Today, he combines this task with his position as a professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela. In a gap between classes and research, Robledo tells us why his work can mean a before and after for animal welfare, food safety and aquaculture companies.
-After defending your doctoral thesis, you packed your bags and moved to the University of Edinburgh. What motivated you to choose this center?
-I spent six months at the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh before the thesis. I went because Paulino Martinez, one of my directors, knew Ross Houston and told me he thought we would get along well, and the Roslin is a world-leading site in animal genetics. Also, my partner was living in the UK, which obviously also influenced the decision.
Paulino wasn't wrong. I got on so well with Ross that I returned after finishing my thesis to do my postdoc. It was a very simple and straightforward decision. Ross and I got along well and wanted to continue working together.
-You have returned to the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela through the ERC Starting Grant.
-Yes, and I have to thank not only the ERC program and the University but also the Galician Innovation Agency, which offered me a contract as an Oportunius Research Professor with very good conditions, making an effort for me to return home.
However, it does not really feel like a return because I have always been in contact with the Acuigen group and my director, Ana Viñas, in Santiago. My "official" return means continuing and expanding the work we were already doing, opening new research fields, and revitalizing genetic research at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
-What work lines are you focusing on in your new stage?
- My main line of work is disease resistance in fish. This work has two main angles: genetic improvement, applying genomic selection to efficiently improve the traits of aquaculture stocks, and a more novel one, genomic editing, using CRISPR/Cas9 to find and modify genes that can generate resistance to infectious diseases.
CRISPR/Cas9, a technology that recently received the Nobel Prize, is a molecular tool that allows us to modify the genomes of any species, in our case fish, to make them more resistant to viruses, bacteria or parasites. It is a line that I hope to expand in the future.
-This is a technology with enormous potential for humans, but it also has infinite applications for animals. Is it set to revolutionize aquaculture production?
-Absolutely. And also livestock production or agriculture. Today, traditional breeding practices select the animals or plants with the best characteristics within a generation to be used as breeders, giving rise to the next generation with better characteristics. But this works gradually; it is a very gradual process. And the more traits we want to improve, the less progress we make.
CRISPR allows us to generate completely disease-resistant animals in practically a single generation. We could have chickens immune to avian influenza between now and next year. This is one of the research being carried out at the Roslin Institute, where they have found several genes that, when modified, make chickens completely immune. Revolutionary for production, animal welfare and food safety.
-This is a central issue for aquaculture companies. The farm could become unprofitable if a disease appears with high mortality rates. Could modifying the gene that triggers the disease take aquaculture to another level?
-Totally. Aquaculture has already surpassed or is very close to surpassing, fish farm production. We cannot take more fish out of the sea, so if we continue to grow, aquaculture is the only way to feed the population.
Because of the characteristics of the marine world and aquaculture, it is very easy to transmit pathogens. Pigs, for example, are isolated on a farm. But in the sea, wild and farmed species share the same environment in many cases. When we put many fish together, we favor the transmission of pathogens, which find many hosts to infect.
Being able, with a small change in the genome, to make the entire salmon population immune to a virus is critical to sustaining production. As production increases and intensifies, new pathogens are continually appearing. Being able to respond to new challenges quickly and effectively will revolutionize animal production and aquaculture.
-Fish is an increasingly important component of diets. Which species not yet dominant in aquaculture will likely have the most potential in the next 10 to 15 years?
-In Europe or the West generally, it is more difficult for a new key species to emerge. I can think of sole, which is growing rapidly, or octopus, which shows great potential. But in the future, the development of aquaculture in Africa is going to be key. Right now, aquaculture is a minority, and we are working with countries like Uganda or Zambia, where they want to increase production in the next decade to be able to feed their population. There will be a boom, with species like tilapia or catfish, which should experience massive growth in the next 10 to 20 years.
-Does genomic editing have any contraindications or risks, or are they controlled processes that do not trigger side effects?
-Traditional genomic selection has no risk, neither for health or the environment. As long as it is done properly, you simply change the traits of an animal, which can lead to specializations such as in cattle, with breeds for milk production and others for meat production.
Genomic editing has no risk per se. You simply have to do things right and check that the changes made to the genome do not have any indirect effect on other traits. For me, the biggest consideration, especially in aquaculture, is that we must safeguard the genetic integrity of natural populations. There is a high risk that farmed fish will breed with wild individuals, causing possible changes in the genome to be passed on to the wild population.
In my opinion, we should avoid this; therefore, genetically edited production animals would have to be sterile to maintain the genetic integrity of the population. In any case, this is not difficult, and different technologies make it possible to generate sterile fish, including genomic editing.
-How do you value the work of the unit in which Campus Terra is integrated? Do you consider it to be at the forefront of research in Europe?
-Yes, the ACUIGEN group is an international leader. This can be seen in the fact that it has been invited to all the genomics projects in aquaculture at the European level. ACUIGEN has been and continues to be fundamental for aquaculture in Galicia: it works with leading Galician and national aquaculture companies, with guilds or farming parks, providing tools to improve production. The work they have done applying the latest genetic technologies to Galician aquaculture and continue to do is spectacular.
-Galicia is, in fact, the evidence that quality and industrialized aquaculture can generate wealth and employment.
-Companies such as Stolt Sea Farm, Pescanova or Ovapiscis are always willing to collaborate in technology transfer projects such as CDTI to improve the industry's sustainability and in European projects that allow them to keep abreast of the latest developments. We should be proud of what is being done here and our companies' innovation commitment. We don't have to be envious of anyone.
-Another source of pride is your work on IPNV resistance in Atlantic salmon, which has led to a patent application.
-We have to give credit to those who started all this. Ross Houston was the pioneer on this topic, working directly with Hendrix Genetics, who have supported this line of research for over 15 years. When Ross left the University, I "inherited" this line of research. The prospects for the patent are great: previous work succeeded in eliminating the IPNV problem in Atlantic salmon, and now we are transferring IPNV resistance from salmon to a different species: trout. Thus, we are trying to tackle IPNV infections in trout, reducing or eliminating the problem for the industry.
This means that in the future, we will be able to take traits from one species and transfer them to another to improve their disease resistance or, in general, their quality of life. There is indeed a debate at the European level about applying these technologies. But if we can improve farm animals' lives without compensation, what is the argument for not doing so? Is it ethical not to improve the health of our animals if we can do so?
I have participated in several events organized by the European Forum of Farm Animal Breeders (EFFAP), which do a great job conveying to the different stakeholders the need to change the regulation at the European level. A change in legislation is necessary to use genomic editing to improve the lives of our animals.
-We are also talking about salmonids, one of the major species.
-They are the UK's number one food export if you don't count whisky as food. And in Norway or Chile, production is massive. Salmon production is important for its volume and value in rural areas, where it generates work and wealth in areas where people tend to migrate to the big cities.
-You participate in projects with collaborators from all corners of the planet: the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Portugal, Australia, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Qatar. Why is it so important to build bridges and create links in research?
-Many people are working on cancer research, for example, and it is very difficult for them all to know each other. But my field is relatively small. We all know each other, and fortunately, we get along well. And this is essential for opportunities for collaboration to arise.
The European Union comes up with projects yearly focused on specific topics. If you know everyone, it's easy for someone to come to you and offer you the opportunity to participate. Collaboration and networking are fundamental. Being open to the world is enriching and improves the quality of science, and it is also much more fun than working in isolation.
I err a bit on the side of collaborating too much. I participate in so many collaborations that my research sometimes takes a back seat. I'm thinking about learning to say no, but it's difficult because you always like to work with everyone and do different and varied things.
-You graduated in Biology at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2010. Was your interest in genetics clear from the beginning, or did it develop little by little?
-I think I always liked genetics. The degree and the classes helped me to focus, and I came to the department saying: "I want to do something in genetics." I didn't know there was work in aquaculture. It's funny how coincidences end up determining your life a little bit. Now, I obviously like it and see its fundamental role, but at the time, I had no special interest in working in aquaculture or fish.
What I liked were the animals. I loved to think about evolution and how different biological forms had appeared and evolved. That's why I liked genetics from the very beginning. We work in aquaculture, but I've also worked with cows and chickens. Anything with DNA is fun.