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‘Extremophiles’ Scientists will return to the seamount Loihi, off the Big Island, in October to try to collect tiny organisms and keep them alive for research in Hawaii and California.
lure scientists to
the Big Island
They will try to collect
Potential for medicines, new products
the tiny life forms from
undersea volcanic ventsBy Helen Altonn
Star-BulletinMicroorganisms will be collected from the undersea volcano's hydrothermal vents with the submersible Pisces V and placed in an "in situ extremophile bioreactor," said Alex Malahoff, director of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC), which is conducting the expedition.
"It's a first test -- it's brand new," Malahoff said, explaining MarBEC is "breaking ground on all fronts" as it moves into the second year of a $12.4 million, five-year National Science Foundation grant.
MarBEC is a partnership of the University of Hawaii-Manoa and University of California-Berkeley.
Malahoff also heads the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, which operates the submersible, as well as the UH Ocean Resource Engineering Department.
Todd Gregory and Arnaud Bossuyt, graduate students in the department, developed the "extremophile bioreactor" to keep microorganisms alive at the same temperature and pressure as their oceanic volcanic home.
They will be transferred to a transport unit on the submersible's mother ship. Some will be sent to UC-Berkeley, which has recreated the extreme environment in a bioreactor, and the rest will go to UH-Manoa scientists.
Malahoff and UH microbiologist Maqsudul Alam are talking to New Zealand colleagues about a program to see what kind of organisms live in hot pools of hydrothermal vents there.
With "science and technology moving at breakneck speed," MarBEC is seeking industry partnerships to turn research findings into commercial products, Malahoff said. Already, it has partnerships with seven industries and three are pending, he said. It also has agreements with universities in Japan and the New Zealand Institute of Geological Sciences.
Industry sponsors have wide interests in marine organisms for chemicals, drugs and other pharmaceutical products, advanced materials, food, feed, energy, environment, cosmetics, and aquaculture.
MarBEC has 21 faculty members who cross departments at the two university campuses and five more are being recruited in ocean resources.
"One of the biggest challenges as we progress is how to reward faculty to become involved with industry," said Malahoff, who reports to the UH president. "It will require culture changes in the university, funding and contract issues."
Rewards could include incentives such as time off and appropriate payment by companies, he said.
"The present codes generally look at university faculty as though they were civil service faculty. This is an entirely different arena -- a big, big difference."
MarBEC Associate Director Harvey Blanch, with UC-Berkeley's Department of Chemical Engineering, said the UH partnership is a "bit of a challenge," but "we have sort of found a workable solution for being half an ocean apart." UC-Berkeley's high-temperature, high-pressure bioreactor mimics conditions on the sea floor to try to keep microorganisms growing, Blanch said.
Scientists will screen them as sources for enzymes, antibiotics, sunscreens, pigments and other products.
"There may be some things we might find that people haven't found before," Blanch said. "We call this the discovery component of MarBEC -- trying to find unusual new products from unusual life forms."
Besides investigating Archaea, single-celled microorganisms that live in extreme environments, MarBEC scientists are looking for good algae candidates for commercial products.
UH scientists have a prototype bioreactor at Kakaako to grow microalgae and they hope to have a medium-scale bioreactor for experiments next year, Malahoff said.
Blanch said the Berkeley researchers are trying to see if they can take some genes from the algae and put them in more common terrestrial organisms.
"If we can do that, we can use conventional technology instead of having to provide light as an energy source. That will give us an alternative route to make some of these products."
Paul Roessler, principal scientist for microbial biotechnology at Kelco Biopolymers, a unit of Monsanto Co. in San Diego, said it helped shape MarBEC's development and likes the way it's going. "What they bring to the table is access to a lot of interesting habitats that are not normally accessible. We expect there to be a lot of interesting strains, enzymes and genes that can be derived from the ocean."
OmegaTech, located in Boulder, Colo., became associated with MarBEC because of its interest in polyunsaturated fatty acids and carotenoids, said Craig Weaver, director of strain development at the company.
"We want to keep up with current trends and technology, the potential to license technology coming out of MarBEC and the opportunity to directly sponsor research using their expertise," he said.
OmegaTech produces DHA, a fatty acid cultured from algae, and feeds it to chickens for nutritionally enhanced eggs. The company licenses chicken farms to produce eggs using its algae.
"We would like to investigate other polyunsaturates, either for eggs, nutrient supplements or for other foods," Weaver said. "Eventually our DHA will go into a large number of other foods."
Weaver added that he likes MarBEC's "A to Z focus. They start with the discovery of new microbes from the ocean, and the goal is to continue that out to pilot-scale production and development of ingredients -- a full spectrum of product development."
Different strains of algae and microorganisms from extreme environments may lead to an array of new products, from sunscreens to disease-fighting agents. Potential of
extreme-living
creatures thrills
researchersBy Helen Altonn
Star-BulletinThat's the goal of Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC) scientists at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and University of California-Berkeley.
They're pioneering research and, in the process, providing unique training for students in both engineering and marine sciences.
For the first time, Maqsudul Alam, UH associate professor of microbiology, and his group have cultivated microorganisms from hydrothermal vent water samples.
"People worked 10, 15 years, but were not able to culture them," he said. "We were the first to show we can culture them, and actually, we identified a new species."
Meanwhile, UH oceanography professor Robert Bidigare and his team are investigating different strains of algae to find those that produce large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFAs.
Bidigare "is getting rather sensational results in trying to manipulate growth conditions to maximize production," said team member Edward Laws, chairman of the oceanography department.
Alam and his colleagues are investigating extremophiles or microorganisms from extreme environments, such as the undersea volcano Loihi, off the Big Island.
They're also conducting a comprehensive analysis of Molokai's Lake Kauhako, the fourth-deepest lake in the United States, using an approach for the first time combining microbiology and molecular biology. "This lake can now be used as a model system for microbiology diversity," Alam said.
The National Science Foundation, which supports MarBEC as a national center, was so enthused about Alam's research that it gave him additional funding. He has a three-year grant to study diverse microorganisms in lakes of the Hawaiian archipelago with the involvement of local undergraduate students.
Bidigare, working at the new Pauley Marine Laboratory at the Institute of Marine Biology at Coconut Island, is encouraged by his team's results.
They include a golden brown algae that produces PUFAs and a green algae that produces large amounts of carotenoids -- both in demand for pharmaceuticals and other products.
"Right now, the PUFAs have potential as neutriceuticals (nutrition-related products), as well as additives for infant formula," he said. Carotenoids are valuable as neutriceuticals, anti-oxidants and other applications, he said.
Bidigare has had undergraduates from UC-Berkeley working in his lab, as well as UH students. "They have very good job opportunities once they get out of the program," he said.
Alam said students training as engineers for the first time are working in his lab with microbiologists. "They are working side by side to answer the fundamental question: What happens to life in extreme environments? Can organisms be used for biotechnology in general for the benefit of humankind?"
MarBEC researchers are exploring the possibility of isolating samples from other parts of the world where extreme conditions exist.
The NASA-Ames Research Center, one of MarBEC's industry sponsors, is looking to the research for clues to life in extreme environments in space, such as on Mars and on Jupiter's moon Europa.
"What is the genetic information and can we use that information to produce exciting bioproducts that can be used for humankind?" Alam asked. "I think we are at the cutting edge at this moment."