A.I.M. Interview: UTEX's Dr. Jerry Brand

by David Schwartz (Algae Industry Magazine) Dr. Jerry Brand, a PhD biologist and photosynthesis researcher, began his association with the UTEX Culture Collection of Algae in 1987, when he performed an extensive survey of the capacity for hydrogen gas production in UTEX strains. In 1994 he began studies of the causes of freeze damage in the microalgae maintained at UTEX, and has developed protocols to optimize conditions for cryogenetic storage microalgae and cyanobacteria.

Jerry Brand is Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he currently holds the Jack S. Josey Professorship in Energy Studies. He has been the Director of the Culture Collection of Algae (UTEX) at UT-Austin since 1998. Dr. Brand is developing DNA “barcode” information for algal strain identification and is continuing to investigate methods that maximize the number of UTEX strains that can be cryopreserved.

...The other project was a study of protocols that allow cryogenic preservation of algae. The reason for studying that technology is that algae will evolve in the laboratory when continuously cultivated over a period of years or decades. If an algae farmer wants to grow a strain that is particularly productive under local conditions, then he/she will want to use that identical strain every time a replacement is required. This is very similar to a grain farmer who wishes to purchase the same identical strain of seed every year. Strains of algae evolve with time when continuously grown, just as do seed crops, but algae are capable of changing more quickly since they reproduce more rapidly. Some genetic changes are likely to degrade the qualities of an alga that originally made it a desirable strain to cultivate.

If a strain of algae can be placed in liquid nitrogen (colder than any natural place on earth) under conditions that allow it to remain alive after thawing, then it can likely be maintained at that ultra-cold temperature for hundreds of years without any significant genetic change. We can cryogenically preserve hundreds of algal strains but have not been successful with others.

...A grower who orders a strain needs to know as much as possible about the strain, including information regarding its physiological and ecological characteristics, its chemical composition and its taxonomic identity. Unfortunately we and other culture collections of algae are only gradually obtaining the resources required to do the kind of screening that will be needed by the community of commercial growers.

...The Culture Collection was started at Indiana University nearly sixty years ago. It came to the University of Texas at Austin in 1976, and has remained at the same location since then. It has grown from a few hundred strains to nearly 3,000 strains. READ MORE