The consolidated research group namely Fish Neuroendocrinology (www.ucm.es/info/nendopez/) consists of 5 faculty staff and 2 fellowship doctoral students, that carry out research activity more than 25 years ago supported by the Spanish Minister of Science (or equivalent) under the Plan Nacional de I+D+i. Or main focus is the study of food intake regulation and the circadian system of fish. Food intake in fish is a very complex process involving a central system (which integrates metabolic, endocrine, neuroendocrine and circadian information) and a peripheral system (as main regulator of satiety), both interacting with stress response. We are interested in the search and identification of neuroendocrine regulators involved in food intake in fish, as well as the establishment of relationships among nutritional status, brain neuroendocrine regulatory system and the circadian organization. The characterization of circadian oscillators (identification, functional regulation by nutritional status, and outputs) in central and peripheral locations is a main objective of our group. Moreover, the impact of stress, the involvement of cortisol and catecholamines on both, circadian oscillators and feeding regulators is also an objective of our research activities. All these objectives are addressed by combining molecular techniques, in vivo and in vitro physiological approaches, and behavioral methodologies. Our final objective is the transfer of our results to fish farms in order to improve the feeding efficiency of fish under intensive culture conditions.
Finally, our research group has teaching and formative vocation, and a long tradition on scientific education of graduate and postgraduate students, providing a suitable environment to guarantee the successful training of fellows from MSCA program.