Douglas R. Tocher

Douglas R. Tocher has been a Senior Lecturer in the Nutrition Group of the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling in Scotland since 1998. His primary research interests are currently focused on the molecular biology and genetic basis of regulation of lipid and fatty acid metabolism and nutrition in fish. He also works on transcription factors and application of post-genomic technologies to various studies of fish lipid metabolism and nutrition including development and utilization of salmon microarrays. Prior to his current position, he worked for 16 years for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) at the Institute of Marine Biochemistry, Aberdeen (1982-1986) and the Unit of Aquatic Biochemistry of the University of Stirling (1986-1998). His main research interests during that period were in fish lipid and fatty acid metabolism including embryonic and early larval development, and cell culture studies on eicosanoid metabolism, polyunsaturated fatty acid synthesis and neural development. He is a member of the European Federation of Lipids, the American Oil Chemists' Society, and the World Aquaculture Society, and the editorial boards of the journals Aquaculture and Fish Physiology and Biochemistry. Dr. Tocher received a B.Sc. and Ph.D., both in Biochemistry, from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.