Laura Vossen

I am a postdoc with a background in fish physiology (PhD) and behavioral ecology (MSc and BSc). In my current project with Prof Erika Roman, we are developing behavioral and physiological tools to improve welfare of house crickets (Acheta domesticus) in insect production systems.

During my PhD, I studied the effect of two pollutants on the GABA system of fish: near-future levels of the greenhouse gas CO2, and pharmaceutical pollution by the tranquilizer oxazepam. Major findings: no evidence for effects of near-future CO2 in zebrafish and three-spined stickleback. Dilute concentrations of oxazepam strongly reduced the startle response of wild-caught but not of laboratory zebrafish. Startle responses of wild-caught zebrafish were restored in long-term (28-day) exposure.

PhD in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, Uppsala University (SE)

MSc in Evolutionary Biology, University of Groningen (NL)

BSc in Ecology and Evolution, University of Groningen (NL)

If you are interested in doing a BSc / MSc research project with me, please drop me an email!

During my PhD, I supervised BSc and MSc students in Biology and Biomedicine: Johan Rudin (BSc project), Oly Sen Sarma (MSc project, Oly is now a PhD student at UU), Marcus Österkrans (MSc project), Ben Pettersson (MSc project), Tom Abbu (BSc project) and Clara Jeong (MSc project).

Vossen, L.E., Roman, E., Jansson, A. (2021) Fasting increases shelter use in house crickets (Acheta domesticus) Journal of Insects as Food and Feed, 0 (0): 1-4

Vossen, L.E., Červený, D., Österkrans, M., Thörnqvist, P.O., Jutfelt, F., Fick, J., Brodin, T., Winberg, S.(2020) Chronic exposure to oxazepam pollution produces tolerance to anxiolytic effects in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Environmental Science and Technology, 54 (3): 1760-1769

Vossen, L.E., Červený, D., Sen Sarma, O., Thörnqvist, P.O., Jutfelt, F., Fick, J., Brodin, T., Winberg, S. (2020) Low concentrations of the benzodiazepine drug oxazepam induce anxiolytic effects in wild-caught but not in laboratory zebrafish. Science of the Total Environment, 703: 134701

Vossen, L.E. (2019) Effect of elevated pCO2 and environmental oxazepam on the behavior and physiology of teleost fish Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, ISSN 1651-6206; 1614

Sundin, S., Vossen, L.E., Nilsson-Sköld, H., Jutfelt, F. (2017) No effect of elevated carbon dioxide on reproductive behaviors in the three-spined stickleback Behavioral Ecology, 28(6): 1482-1491

Cocco, A., Rönnberg, A.M.C., Jin, Z., André, G.I., Vossen, L.E., Bhandage, A.K., Thörnqvist, P.O., Birnir, B. and Winberg, S. (2017) Characterization of the γ-aminobutyric acid signaling system by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction Neuroscience, 343: 300-321

Vossen, L.E., Jutfelt, F., Cocco, A., Thörnqvist, P.O., Winberg, S. (2016) Zebrafish (Danio rerio) behaviour is largely unaffected by elevated pCO2 Conservation Physiology, 4(1): 1-8