Speaker

About the speaker: 

Prof Michele Stanley has been involved with leading and developing numerous large-scale (inter)national collaborative research projects in applied algal biotechnology for 20+ years, including ASTRAL (EU Horizon), ABACUS (EU BBI-JU) and Blue BioClusters (Horizon Europe).

Company info:

The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) is Scotland’s largest and oldest independent marine science organisation, delivering marine science for a productive and sustainably managed marine environment through innovative research, education and engagement with society. Through their company SAMS-Enterprise they operate a seaweed nursery providing a range of services including biobanking facilities and working with a range of different seaweed species, seaweed@sams-enterprise.com. Plus, The Seaweed Academy is the UK’s only dedicated seaweed industry facility offering a complete package of training, education, and business development – a one-stop-shop for supporting expansion and skills development for the seaweed aquaculture industry, seaweedacademy.co.uk. 

Presentation: 

Selective breeding for seaweeds has been carried out in China since the 1960s and is now being investigated in other countries as the industry seeks to expand cultivation. There are major questions to be addressed, amongst which are: can we learn from agriculture; in relation to disease how relevant is the gene to gene concept; and are we investing enough into biobanks to support selective breeding?