Till Harter

Till Harter is an Emmy Noether Research Group Leader at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany. His research focuses on understanding how red blood cells in marine vertebrates regulate oxygen supply under environmental stressors like climate change, ocean acidification, and hypoxia. The Harter Lab employs integrative approaches across cellular, molecular, and organismal levels to study species including Atlantic cod, rainbow trout, and Antarctic icefishes.

• Education: PhD in Zoology/Comparative Physiology (University of British Columbia), MSc in Aquaculture and Fisheries (Wageningen University), BSc in Agricultural Sciences (Hohenheim University)
• Key Research Areas: Oxygen transport mechanisms in teleosts, acid-base sensing enzymes (sAC), phenotypic plasticity in red blood cells, climate change impacts on marine organisms, evolutionary physiology of high-altitude and polar species

Scientific Contributions: Discovered novel acid-base sensing pathways in rainbow trout red blood cells, elucidated oxygen delivery mechanisms in Antarctic icefishes, and characterized β-adrenergic sodium-proton exchanger dynamics in white seabass. His 2018 Journal of Experimental Biology paper on icefishes won the JEB Outstanding Paper Prize.

• Current Projects: Investigating Atlantic cod populations across climate change gradients using genomic and respirometry approaches
• Awards: JEB Outstanding Paper Prize 2018