dr. F (Fotini) Kokou

I am a biologist, interested in the interactions between fish and their microbiome. I completed my studies in the Department of Biology at the University of Crete and worked in several European, national and industry-funded projects at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Greece (HCMR). After completing my PhD, I joined as a postdoctoral researcher the Agriculture Research Organization in collaboration with the National Institute for Biotechnology (NIBN – Ben Gurion University of the Negev) in Israel. My work there mainly involved the study of microbial interactions within the fish gut, as well as evaluating the impact of environmental factors (temperature, diet, gut digesta conditions), host genetic background and stress response on the associated microbial communities. 

Since January 2020 I joined the Aquaculture and Fisheries group in WUR. My research interests focus on understanding fish-microbiome interactions in relation to fish nutrition, health and the rearing environment, utilizing principles from microbial ecology, microbiology and physiology in combination with genomics.

Supervisor of PhD candidates Peter Horstmann, Elisavet Syropoulou and Haniswita Fino