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NOAA GRANT TO UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND FUNDS STUDY
OF TOXINS IN FISH-KILLING ALGA

A $149,660 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will fund projects at University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore, Md., to study toxin production in fish-killing alga with the aim of better understanding the environmental circumstances that cause organisms to produce the toxins. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant from the Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms program, managed by NOAA Ocean Service will focus on Karlodinium micrun, which occurs widely along the east coast of the US, and produces at least two fish-killing toxins. The grant will support research to investigate how and why toxin structure varies between different locations. The research may lead to new insights on reasons why some algae produce toxins, which will assist in developing management strategies.

“Harmful algal blooms are a serious economic and public health problem all over the world. NOAA is working to remove, or at least diminish, the threat of these occurrences to save lives and protect the vital economy of our coasts,” said retired Navy vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA and the Bush Administration are working to improve the understanding of our environment and to strengthen regional initiatives like those run by the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.”

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute consists of five major research and education centers and is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology and its application to human health, the marine environment, agriculture, protein engineering and structural biology. UMBI’s centers of research are the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, the Center for Biosystems Research, the Medical Biotechnology Center, the Institute of Human Virology, and the Center of Marine Biotechnology. Dr. Allen Place, a biochemist and professor at UMBI’s Center of Marine Biotechnology, will be the principal investigator.

Each year, NOAA Ocean Service’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, which manages ECOHAB, awards approximately $30 million in grants to members of the academic, state and scientific communities to assist NOAA in fulfilling its mission to study our coastal oceans in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable and timely scientific information. NOAA-sponsored competitive research programs such as ECOHAB demonstrate NOAA's commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 34 years.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources.

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NOAA Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB)

University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute