Facilities

The NCMA houses one of the largest and most diverse collection of marine algae in the world and is situated on the first floor of the Norton Ocean Microbiome and Blue Biotechnology Center. It is a secure area that can only be entered by swipe card access of authorized personnel. It contains 6 walk-in illuminated growth rooms, 4 at permanent temperatures of 2°C, 14°C, 20°C and 24°C; and 2 that can be booked for growth at any temperature; there are also 8 reach-in cooled illuminated incubators for housing back up stocks (3 of which are kept off site). We utilize a light:dark cycle of 13:11 to grow our algal strains. There is a culture transfer area that has 4 laminar flow hoods; a secure cryopreservation facility that houses a control rate freezer and 5 MVE liquid nitrogen storage tanks; a standard laboratory area that is used for molecular work and generating cell pastes for customers; glass wash and autoclave facility; growth media preparation area; shipping preparation area; seawater suite and research greenhouse that contain large scale growth facilities (Kalwel tubes, SeaCAPS systems and mesocosms) along with the capability for continuous flow centrifugation harvest and biomass spray drying.