Environmental Biotechnology Lab

Dr. Holly Bowers, a Research Faculty member at MLML, is now one of the Subject Editors for the scientific journal Harmful Algae. Holly is currently working on harmful algal blooms in coastal California in collaboration with Jason Smith at MLML, collaborators at MBARI and UCSC, and elsewhere.

Holly is excited to join the Editorial Board of Harmful Algae as a Subject Editor. This is her 20^th year studying HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms) so she considers it an honor to be part of the third highest ranking publication among more than 100 marine and freshwater biology journals. She recently returned from the International Conference on HAB’s held in Nantes, France where she presented her work: “Diversity and toxicity of Pseudo-nitzschia species in Monterey Bay: Perspectives from targeted and adaptive sampling”. After the meeting, she thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Brittany region with no plans and no reservations!

GenomeWeb recently published an article about Ubiquitome's newest portable qPCR platform.  Ubiquitome is commercializing a 16-well real-time PCR instrument that is aimed at personalizing the method and making it more accessible to researchers. Their new Liberty16 instrument is designed to be easily used in the field. MLML Research Faculty Holly Bowers recently won USC Sea Grant funding from the Ocean Protection Council Proposition 84 to study toxic algae using the Liberty16.

"Bowers' new funding will allow her group to take the Liberty16 into the field, and do PCR 'boatside, or shoreside,' she said, to detect different algae species in the water and to support local stakeholders. Boatside, and even 'tankside' research is much like bedside genomics, in which a clinician runs a test right next to a patient, she said. 'This takes us, as algal scientists, into that realm of thinking.' "

To read more about how researchers are using this new technology you can read the full article here.