Wednesday 30 April 2014 at 2:00pm

Title: “Development of Algal Harvesting Technologies for Cost Effective Biofuel Production”

Dissertation Defense Seminar

Adviser: Russell T. Hill, Ph.D.

Zeev Pancer
1957-2014
Associate Professor Zeev Pancer, a faculty member in the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Maryland School of Medicine died in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 20, 2014. He was 56 years old.
Zeev's work has led to the identification of unique antibodies derived from jawless fish (lamprey and hagfish), representatives of the oldest vertebrate taxa. The structure of these antibodies is unique compared to antibodies of all jawed vertebrates (from shark to man) which consist of immunoglobulins. They consist of many leucine rich repeated sequences and are termed Variable Lymphocyte Receptors (VLRs) and they can target diverse antigens, comparable to that of the human antibodies and T-cell receptors. Zeev earned a B.Sc. in Biology at the Tel Aviv University, Israel in 1985, a M.Sc. in Animal Sciences in 1988 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and a D.Sc. in Comparative Immunology at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in 1994. From 1994 to 2005 Zeev carried out postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel; Mainz University, Germany; the California Institute of Technology and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.
Zeev and his research staff developed an innovative high-throughput method to isolate antigen-specific binding VLR clones using yeast surface display. At the time of his death he was working to create a “synthetic immune system” by grafting to yeast the essential components of adaptive immunity. This study would retrace the adaptations that are required for an organism to acquire a complex adaptive immune system, providing insights into origins and function of the human immune system.
A memorial seminar will be held on Friday 23 May at 10am to celebrate the life and research of Prof. Pancer. More information on the seminar can be found here.

Wednesday 23 April 2014 at 3:00pm

Title: “Characterization of microbial communities through multiplexed amplicon sequencing”

Speaker: James R. White, Ph.D.
Founder, Resphera Biosciences

Abstract:
The last decade has seen a revolution in the development of culture-independent methods for characterizing the inherent diversity and taxonomic composition of complex microbial environments, particularly through utilization of universal primer sets to amplify conserved regions within the 16S and 18S rRNA genes, as well as the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region.

The concurrent advancement of high-throughput next-generation DNA sequencing technologies (e.g., Roche/454, Illumina MiSeq) has greatly enhanced our ability to perform large-scale and cost-effective amplicon studies by multiplexing many samples on a single sequencing run.

In this talk, I aim to provide a practical overview of amplicon-based study design and the current challenges and limitations associated with analysis of the data. I will further illustrate the utility of the MiSeq platform by discussing results of a recent collaboration to characterize the bacterial and fungal diversity of the tomato plant and to evaluate environmental drivers of plant surface microbial community structure.

Host: Tsvetan Bachvaroff, Ph.D.

BALTIMORE, MD (April 21, 2014)

Professor Kevin Sowers, Professor of Marine Biotechnology at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET), and Professor Upal Ghosh, at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, have received a $100,000 grant from the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII). The grant will fund research to that will ameliorate the environmental harms of PCB’s. The program is an initiative of the Technology Council of Maryland (TEDCO) created in 1998 to spur commercialization of scientific research in Maryland as part of the state’s efforts to foster economic development through academic research.

Dr. Sowers is a global leader in environmental science and has pioneered a method that uses activated carbon pellets seeded with microorganisms that degrade the concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments. In recent laboratory experiments, the cultures Sowers created resulted in over 80% reduction in the PCB mass after treatment.

“Our hope is that this method for treating PCB’s will have a tangible impact in restoring previously degraded areas – both on land and in bodies of water,” says Sowers. “PCB’s have long been a harmful and largely intransigent pollutant and our work is intended to address serious health impacts these chemicals have on people, animals and the environment.”

Sowers is collaborating in this work with Upal Ghosh, a professor at the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering at UMBC. “The magnitude of PCB sediment contamination and associated water quality problems in the United States is reflected in more than 3,200 state and local advisories that have warned the public about of the health impacts of consuming contaminated fish. These warnings cover 24% of total river miles throughout the United States,” Ghosh says. “The advisories include 100% of the Great Lakes and 35% of all other lakes nationwide.” PCBs are frequently reported as the leading contaminants at impacted sites. Current remediation technologies are expensive, destructive to environmentally sensitive areas, and difficult to coordinate with local activities. The technology proposed by Sowers and Ghosh addresses existing challenges and is especially suitable for environmentally sensitive sites such as wetlands and difficult-to-reach areas under-pier structures in contaminated harbors. This technology advances an in-situ remediation approach using activated carbon that has been recently developed by Ghosh and commercialized through a startup company Sediment Solutions.

The Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) was created as a partnership between the State of Maryland and five Maryland academic research institutions (Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore and University of Maryland Baltimore County.) The program is designed to promote commercialization of research conducted between and among the partnership universities and it leverages each institution’s unique strengths.

“The MII program is critically important to our partner universities and the citizens of Maryland,” noted Russell Hill, IMET Director, “because it facilitates the transformation of basic science into practical and far-reaching applications. We are grateful for TEDCO’s support and foresight in addressing this important environmental issue and are proud of the excellent research being done by Dr. Sowers and Dr. Ghosh.”

TEDCO
The Maryland State Legislature created TEDCO in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses in all regions of the State. TEDCO is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s leading source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding for the development of startup companies in Maryland’s innovation economy.

INSTITUTE OF MARINE AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
Located in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology is a strategic alliance involving scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the University of Maryland Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Scientists are engaged in cutting-edge research in microbiology, molecular genetic analysis and biotechnology, using marine resources to develop new drug therapies, alternative energy and other innovations to improve public health and economic opportunities. IMET also contributes to sustainable marine aquaculture and fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay and other marine ecosystems.

Algae from the Chesapeake Bay could be key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Institute of Marine and EnvironmentalTechnology (IMET) has been named a winner in the first round of the Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC)’s $35 million international Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses for its work in using algae to capture carbon dioxide.

Read more.

Wednesday 9 April 2014 at 3:00pm

Title: “Global precise characterization of glycerol lipids and novel glycosphingolipids shed insights on diatom's ecophysiology and biofuel development”

Speaker: Prof. Xiaojun Yan
Ningbo University, China

Host: Allen Place, Ph.D.

The Future Of Clean, Green Fish Farming Could Be Indoor Factories
by Dan Charles
April 07, 2014 5:45 PM ET

Why hasn't fish farming taken off in the U.S.?

It's certainly not for lack of demand for the fish. Slowly but surely, seafood that's grown in aquaculture is taking over the seafood section at your supermarket, and the vast majority is imported.

The shrimp and tilapia typically come from warm-water ponds in southeast Asia and Latin America. Farmed salmon come from big net pens in the coastal waters of Norway or Chile. Read More...