CRISPRLus

The salmon louse is a small parasite that causes big problems for salmon farming and wild salmon. It feeds on the fish’s skin and blood, leaving wounds that lead to stress and subsequent infections. Current medical treatments are losing effectiveness because lice have developed resistance, while alternative mechanical treatments harm and stress the fish. Therefore, new solutions are urgently needed.

Our project focuses on a fascinating question: how do female lice pack their eggs with nutrients that larvae need to survive before finding a host? These nutrients are produced in one part of the louse and transported through its body to the eggs, but the exact mechanism of uptake is unknown. We aim to identify the proteins that make this process possible.
Understanding this system could open the door to innovative strategies. One approach is to deliver proteins that destroy the eggs, making female lice sterile. Another is to use the same pathway to introduce gene-editing tools like CRISPR, which would allow us to study lice biology in detail and uncover why they become resistant to treatments.

In the long run, this knowledge could lead to groundbreaking methods to control salmon lice, helping protect both farmed and wild salmon.