Sofie Derycke is a Senior researcher at the Marine Genomics Lab of the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) and a guest professor at Ghent University. Her lab focuses on optimising DNA and eDNA-based monitoring of the marine environment in relation to human impacts such as sand extraction, offshore windfarms and fisheries. They study meiofauna, macrobenthos, epibenthos and fish, as well as functional diversity of microbial communities. They also investigate the stock structure of commercially important fish species using population genomic approaches, and use DNA and eDNA to investigate the authenticity, origin and safety of seafood products. In short, DNA is her preferred toolbox to protect and understand our precious marine ecosystem.