"Microarrays for the detection of toxic algae" - MIDTAL
Funding Year: 2007
Funding Scheme: Small-to-medium scale collaborative project
Project Duration: 45 months
Total Project Value: €4.3m
EU Grant-Aid: €3.3m
Grant-Aid to Ireland: €363,629
Lead Partner: Alfred Wegener Institute for Marine and Polar Research (Germany)
Irish Partner(s):
- National University of Ireland, Galway (MRI)
Project Summary
MIDTAL will support the common fisheries policy to aid the national monitoring agencies by providing new rapid tools for the identification of toxic algae and their toxins so that they can comply with ECC directive 91/1491/CEE and reduce the need for the mouse bioassay. Microarrays are the state of the art technology in molecular biology for the processing of bulk samples for detection of target RNA/DNA sequences. The project will target rapid species identification using rRNA genes as the target. Antibodies to specific toxins will be included because even when cell numbers are very low, the toxins can be present and can be accumulated in shellfish.