Marine microbes
The microbial world accounts for a tremendous amount of life in
the marine environment; just in a single teaspoon of seawater,
quantities of microscopic organism reach approximately 100,000
plants, 1000 animals, 1 million bacteria and over 1 billion
viruses. Due to the sheer number of micro-organisms in the oceans
many of these species are scarcely understood or completely new to
science.
With such a vast resource covering over 70% of the Earth’s
surface, the ocean is likely to provide the key to many
environmental and societal challenges, such as biofuel production,
alternative chemicals and medicines and ecosystem health
indicators.
PML has built a strong expertise base in microbial research over
the years. By using this acquired knowledge, scientists at PML are
identifying novel chemical compounds found in microbes for wide
application within the industrial and medical sectors.
Projects
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC) Biofuels
BBSRC
funded scientists from PML are working on a 5 year collaborative
project with the University of Durham to investigate the
optimisation of lipid production from microalgae for the production
of biofuels. The ultimate aim of the project is to reduce our
reliance on fossil fuels and provide a viable alternative to
land-crop
biofuels.
- Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust is working with PML to find a formula for
cultivating biofuel from algae. PML's role in the project is to
screen thousands of new algal strains to identify which algae will
be able to produce large quantities of a substance similar to
vegetable oil for conversion to biofuel which could then lead to
large scale commercial production.