SBIR-STTR Award

Over 10 million coral specimens a year are traded in the +$100 million/year, ornamental-recreational aquaria industry. Over ninety percent of commercial, coral specimens come from some form of mass harvesting of wild corals from, coral reefs. This can have a detrimental impact to coral reefs. We have invented, a method of perpetual propagation of corals through tissue engineering., Hundreds to thousands of microscopic tissue explants are generated from a, single coral polyp. These explants can be induced to undergo, "remorphogenesis" and develop into primary coral polyps and colonization. In, Phase I, it’s proposed to optimize this technology for mass-production and to, augment cryo-preservation methods to control production rates. Culture media, and environmental conditions will be tested for optimal productivity. Phase II will, expand this technology to a wide-range of coral species, and to establish a DNA, "fingerprint" system to certify specimens that are tissue-engineered vs. wildcollected, specimens., SUMMARY OF

Anticipated Results:
, Results from the work in Phases I and II, will produce a technical protocol to, mass produce at least five different coral species using a tissue-engineering, biotechnology. Mass production of tissue-engineered coral for commercial, distribution can limit the impact of mass-harvesting of wild corals, thereby limiting, the adverse impacts of this industry-based activity, and consistently providing the, customer with a significantly cheaper and higher quality product

Over 10 million coral species a year are traded in the +$100 million/year ornamental-recreational aquaria industry. Over ninety percent of commercial coral specimens come from some form of mass harvesting of wild corals from coral reefs. This can have a detrimental impact to coral reefs. We invented a method of perpetual propagation of corals through tissue engineering. Hundreds to thousands of microscopic tissue explants are generated from a single coral polyp. These explants can be induced to regenerate and develop into primary coral polyps and undergo colonization. In Phase I, we evolved this technology for mass-production and to augment cryo-preservation methods to control production rates using a single coral species, Heliofungia. The method for Heliofungia is not optimal for other coral species, and often require radically different medias, as well as environmental conditions. In Phase II, we will develop and optimize methods for micropropagation and cryo-preservation for ten commercial species of coral, and two species of coral listed as “threatened” on the U.S. Endangered Species List. The ten commercial species will be necessary to demonstrate the commercial feasibility and competitiveness of this technology. The threatened species will be necessary to demonstrate the value of this technology to the conservation/restoration industry. SUMMARY OF

Anticipated Results:
Micropropagation and aquaria-transition protocols developed for ten high-value commercial coral species will allow for the immediate commercialization of this technology, as well as ensure significant entry into the coral-trade industry