Billy Moore
Postdoctoral Associate
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BSc: Swansea University (UK), MSc University of Essex (UK), PhD: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (Japan)
Research Websites: Burt Marine Biology Lab
Research Areas: Coral reef biology, Genomics, Ecophysiology, Adaptation
Billy Moore is a fish physiologist and geneticist specializing in the adaptive response of coral reef organisms to ocean warming. During his PhD at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, he was granted the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science Doctoral Fellowship for Young Scientists for his research into the physiological and molecular response of clownfish to future ocean warming.
At New York University Abu Dhabi, Moore aims to build on previous physiological research in the UAE, to understand the genetic mechanisms of thermal tolerance in fish of the Arabian Gulf. Specifically, he is interested in linking adaptive physiological traits to the genomic regions/genes that code for these traits, with the aim of understanding if similar adaptation may arise in fish globally under ocean warming.
To address these questions, Moore pairs physiological measurements of metabolism, morphology, and behavior with genetic techniques including genome assembly, transcriptomic analyses, and population genetic analyses, together allowing for the identification of physiological responses to warming and their underlying genetic machinery.