Research Overview
A question runs through my research
How can we improve aquatic animal health, seafood quality, and sustainability without increasing environmental cost?
To address this, I study the aquatic food value chain from production to post-harvest preservation. On the production side, I investigate how environmental and farming conditions shape aquatic animal physiology, health, and product quality, while developing PLGA-based oral delivery systems for vaccines and probiotic-derived immunostimulants. On the post-harvest side, I develop bio-based passive cooling materials for sustainable cold-chain management and investigate the physiological, biochemical, and flavor mechanisms underlying seafood quality deterioration during processing and storage. Building on my earlier research on environmental stressors in shellfish, these efforts aim to develop science-based strategies that improve aquatic animal health, reduce production and post-harvest losses, and enhance the sustainability, safety, and quality of aquatic foods.
Aquaculture Environment, Animal Health, and Seafood Quality
My earlier research examined how farming conditions and environmental stressors influence shellfish physiology, biochemical composition, and quality. Working primarily with oysters and mussels, we investigated the effects of temperature, salinity, and microplastic exposure on physiological responses, metabolism, and flavor compound accumulation. Using physiological, biochemical, and omics approaches, this work shows how aquaculture environments shape seafood quality at harvest. These findings provide scientific guidance for optimizing farming practices to improve animal health, product quality, and production sustainability.
Research topics
- Aquaculture environmental stressors
- Shellfish physiology and metabolism
- Flavor biochemistry
- Microplastic ecotoxicology
- Metabolomics
Aquaculture Health and Oral Delivery Systems
An important component of my doctoral research focuses on developing biodegradable delivery platforms for probiotics and antigens in aquaculture. Although oral delivery is a scalable strategy for disease prevention in fish and shrimp, maintaining bioactive stability during feed storage and digestive transit remains challenging. I therefore investigate PLGA-based systems that are spray-coated onto extruded feed pellets to protect encapsulated cargo and enable controlled release in the digestive tract. This research aims to improve oral therapeutics, advance sustainable disease prevention, and reduce aquaculture production losses.
Research topics
- PLGA-based delivery systems
- Oral vaccines
- Controlled-release systems
- Functional aquafeeds
- Disease prevention
Sustainable Cold Chain and Thermal Management
My doctoral research focuses on developing bio-based composite films from naturally derived materials that integrate passive radiative cooling with evaporative cooling, enabling sub-ambient cooling without external energy input. Derived from renewable natural materials, these films combine efficient thermal management with the mechanical robustness required for practical food-packaging applications. This research aims to reduce reliance on conventional refrigeration and promote environmentally friendly cold-chain solutions for agricultural/aquatic foods and other perishable products.
Research topics
- Passive radiative cooling
- Evaporative cooling
- Bio-based composite films
- Food cold-chain technologies
Seafood Processing, Storage, and Flavor Quality (Post-harvest)
Complementing my pre-harvest research, this work examines how different post-harvest preservation methods affect seafood quality. During my earlier training, I investigated physiological, biochemical, and flavor-related changes in oysters and mussels under different processing, live-holding, and storage conditions. These findings support the optimization of preservation strategies to maintain flavor and freshness, extend shelf life, reduce post-harvest losses, and deliver higher-quality seafood products.
Research topics
- Seafood preservation
- Shellfish flavor chemistry
- Live storage
- Shelf-life extension
- Quality evaluation