• Marine host-pathogen environment interactions
• Invertebrate immune response and physiology

• Neuroendocrine regulation on crustacean physiology of molting, growth, reproduction, sex differentiation and stress responses

• Post-genomics and biotechnology of salt-loving, radiation-tolerant, and cold-adapted extremophiles

• Comparative immunology focused on cartilaginous fish
• Development of new technologies/therapies to understand, diagnose, and treat human and animal disease

Dr. Nick Hammond is the Associate Vice President of Innovation and Economic Development (AVPIED) for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and the Assistant Director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET).

• Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms that permit organisms to adapt to unique diets, environments, and interactions (symbiosis)

• Mechanisms of heat tolerance in hypothermophiles

• Aquatic microbial ecology and aquacultural microbiology

• Nitrogen and sulfur cycles of marine recirculating aquaculture systems
• Nitrogen fixation in the gut of a wood-eating catfish

• Molecular, biochemical, structural, and functional aspects of protein-carbohydrate interactions relevant to immunity and early development

• Molecular, cellular and applied aspects of fish germ cell biology, reproductive physiology and vaccine development