Roger Huerlimann

Background

About Roger Huerlimann

Roger Huerlimann is a Staff Scientist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan, where his research spans marine genomics, transcriptomics, and aquaculture biotechnology. His current work focuses on how tropical reef fish acclimate to rising sea temperatures and heat waves, the development of molecular diagnostic tools for aquaculture, eDNA-based biodiversity monitoring of coral reef ecosystems in tropical coastal ecosystems. Roger holds a PhD in the genetics and biochemistry of microalgae, an MSc in marine biology, and a BSc in biochemical engineering. Since completing his PhD in 2014, he has built a research career spanning aquaculture genomics, molecular biology, and applied bioinformatics, with a consistent focus on translating fundamental science into real-world outcomes for fisheries and aquaculture industries. His work spans a broad range of commercially and ecologically important species, including grouper, black tiger prawn, barramundi, silver-lipped pearl oyster, coral trout, green sea turtle, hammerhead shark, and sawfish. He has extensive expertise in genome and transcriptome assembly and annotation, metabarcoding (16S, ITS, COI, 12S), metagenomics, and epigenomics, covering the full workflow from laboratory to bioinformatic analysis. Among his applied projects, Roger leads the development of EbiSeq, an eDNA- and eRNA-based diagnostic platform for shrimp aquaculture, designed to detect pathogens and assess pond health in real time, bridging cutting-edge molecular tools with direct industry application. A full list of my publications can be found here: & hl=en & oi=ao