Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and University of North Carolina Wilmington cooperate with funding from NOAA

Posted On: June 1, 2009

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced a five-year, $22.5 million award of a new cooperative institute which will be headquartered at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University in Fort Pierce, Florida, and co-managed by the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). This is the single largest competitive research grant awarded to HBOI/FAU since their inception. The Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology is a consortium; limited partners are SRI International in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the University of Miami, Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, Florida. The consortium will coordinate the work and resources of all of the member organizations for the purpose of advancing NOAA’s priorities.

The new institute will conduct research under three main themes: development of advanced underwater technologies, exploration and research of frontier regions of the eastern continental shelf and beyond, and improved understanding of deep and shallow coral ecosystems. NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research will be the institute’s primary NOAA partner, which will replace the four east coast centers of NOAA’s Undersea Research Program.

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From Issue 5 • Categories: Tags: Harbor Branch, marine biotechnology, marine cluster, North Carolina marine biotech • No Comments

When it Comes to Going Green, These N.C. Scientists are Singing the Blues

Posted On: May 11, 2009

This year scientists in North Carolina have made a resolution to embrace a new earth-friendly trend — going Blue. This new charge is coming out of MARBIONC (Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina), one of the country’s newest business incubators that discovers, develops and markets new products and technologies derived from the sea. “The ocean holds the key to renewable energy, environmentally friendly cosmetics, renewable seafood sources, and even new treatments for diseases,” adds Jeffrey Wright, Ph.D., Principal and Director of Research of MARBIONC. According to the World Wildlife Fund, over 60 percent of the world’s marine life is over-fished. The scientists at MARBIONC are cultivating black sea bass and southern flounder in on-shore tanks, creating a renewable food source that eliminates the destructive in-ocean farming practices that put harmful waste back into the environment. MARBIONC has the nation’s largest collection of marine microorganisms whose land-based cousins account for 70 percent of all antibiotics in existence. Most recently, they patented a treatment for cystic fibrosis with a molecule derived from Florida Red Tide.

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From Issue 3 • Categories: Tags: biofuel, marine bioprospecting, marine biotechnology, marine library, marine microbe, North Carolina marine biotech • No Comments