Algae Tech

The ASP studied a fairly specific aspect of algae_their ability to produce natural oils. Researchers not only concerned themselves with finding algae that produced a lot of oil, but also with algae that grow under severe conditions_extremes of temperature, pH and salinity. At the outset of the program, no collections existed that either emphasized or characterized algae in terms of these constraints. Early on, researchers set out to build such a collection. Algae were collected from sites in the west, the northwest and the southeastern regions of the continental U. S., as well as Hawaii. At its peak, the collection contained over 3, 000 strains of organisms. After screening, isolation and characterization efforts, the collection was eventually

Winnowed down to around 300 species, mostly green algae and diatoms. The Collection, now housed at the University of Hawaii, is still available to researchers.

This collection is an untapped resource, both in terms of the unique organisms Available and the mostly untapped genetic resource they represent. It is our sincere hope that future researchers will make use of the collection not only as a source of new products for energy production, but for many as yet undiscovered new products and genes for industry and medicine.