Prof. G. Flik (Gert)

Prof. Gert Flik investigates how fish adapt themselves to environmental and stress factors. This research is of great importance to aquaculture and fish farming: fish bred at fish farms experience stress as a result of large densities, diseases and the cleaning of the basins. Flik's research may lead to better breeding methods.

His research on fish is also important from a purely scientific point of view. Fish offer versatile and easily modifiable models for studying stress and related adaptation mechanisms. Flik studies living fish using imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, integrating as many factors as possible: the function of the endocrine stress axis, the thyroid axis and the immune system, their mutual communication, and the way in which these systems are controlled by higher brain structures.