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Health, Business and Natural Sciences

The School of Health, Business and Natural Sciences offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Faculties

  • Faculty of Business Administration
  • Faculty of Graduate Studies in Health Sciences
  • Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences
  • Faculty of Nursing
  • Faculty of Occupational Therapy

Information

  • Curriculum and Course Catalog
  • Fisheries Science Centre
  • Institute of Health Science Research
  • Research Centre Against Violence

Research

PurpleGain

The biotechnological development of purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB) focuses on resource recovery from waste sources, contributing to a circular bioeconomy. PURPLEGAIN aims to create a European network to share information, facilitating technology and knowledge transfer between the academic and industrial sectors, related to PPB applications for resource recovery from organic waste sources. Resource recovery includes wastewater or organic waste, open or closed environments, in single or chain processes. The network associates fundamental-focused and applied-research groups, improving lab-scale technology optimization through mechanistic modeling. It benefits the technology transfer from applied-research groups to industry, considerably improving process design.

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Lava tubes as microbial habitats and planetary analogues

Lava tube caves are host to a fascinating microbiota that grows in mats or crusts sometimes visible to the naked eye. The biogeochemistry of these microbes, including their adaptational response to these oligotrophic environments, potential roles in speleothem formation and biogeochemical cycling of basalt components. Furthermore, Icelandic lava tubes make for attractive planetary analogues for astrobilogical studies, as they share many features with comparable cave systems in other rocky planets where life may have subsisted in the past.

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Pseudomonas syringae in Peltigera lichens

The plant pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae is generally not found in the endothallic microbiota of lichens, except those of the genus Peltigera. This has led us to wonder whether Peltigera lichens can be regarded as natural reservoirs for this plant pathogen. Preliminary analysis indicates, however, that the Peltigera-associated P. syringae population is of a distinct haplotypical composition, indicating a community that may be adapted to this unusual host.

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Birch Genomics

Betula pubescens Ehrh. (mountain birch) is the only forest-forming tree in Iceland. Since human settlement (874 AD), the continuous 25,000-30,000 km2 forest has shrunk to 1.200 km2 of fragmented patches, making it a good object to study population genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation and disturbance. Further, genetic studies have also shown that hybridization between the tetraploid (2n=56) B. pubescens and the diploid (2n=28) Betula nana L. (dwarf birch) occurs among Iceland’s natural populations. This project assesses the genetic variation within and among birch forests remaining across Iceland. Information on the distribution of genetic variation of birch in Iceland is essential for its conservation and to establish genotype-phenotype associations to predict responses to new environmental conditions imposed by climate change and novel biotic/abiotic stressors.

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Greetings from Brynjar Karlsson

We ensure that our students enjoy agreeable surroundings. Our classes are small and thus we create a pleasant and close atmosphere between students and teachers. The school faculties work successfully with a diverse flora of organisations all over the country involving clinical studies, in-field programmes and professional training. Our students praise our courses and social activities and the employers of our graduates issue positive testimonies on their performance and the quality of the school’s study programmes.
I welcome you as new members of our learning community at the School of Health, Business and Natural Sciences.

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University of Akureyri

520687-1229
Norðurslóð 2
600 Akureyri
unak@unak.is
460 8000
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