Osama Alian will be the lead author in June at the International Association of Great Lakes Research meeting in Guelph, Ontario. He will present recent advances in the sensitivity and breadth of organisms detected with an Automated Fluorescence Intensity Detection Device being developed in the laboratory of Jeffrey Ram, professor of Physiology for the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Alian, a research assistant in Dr. Ram's laboratory, will present "Automated Measurement of Enzymatic Activity for Monitoring Live Organisms in Ballast Water." The abstract was written by Hager Alkhafaji, Hannah Fine, Adrian Vasquez, Banani Sen and Dr. Ram.
United States, Canadian, state and international regulations will soon require ships entering the Great Lakes to treat ballast water so that virtually no live organisms will be released in discharged ballast water, Dr. Ram explained. The regulations are designed to halt the introduction and spread of non-native or pathogenic species picked up in ballast water while the ships travel other parts of the world. Dr. Ram's laboratory recently published a paper describing the Automated Fluorescence Intensity Detection Device, which was developed to differentiate live from dead organisms in ballast water by measuring enzymatic activity that metabolizes fluorescein diacetate (non-fluorescent) to fluorescein (fluorescent) in live organisms.
The presentation will describe new modifications of AFIDD that increase detection sensitivity.
"Osama brings to the project a high level of enthusiasm, boundless curiosity, diverse interests and knowledge, and excellent communication skills," Dr. Ram said. "He took a course in Molecular Aquatic Ecology that I taught last summer at the Belle Isle Aquarium, and I recruited him into the laboratory from there. Besides being a student research assistant in my lab, Osama is a non-degree post-graduate student with intentions to enter a master's degree program in the medical school, possibly in Physiology or another department."
The Ram Lab Automated Ballast Treatment Verification Project is one of the efforts of Dr. Ram's lab. The project seeks to reduce the likelihood of new invasive species being introduced to the Great Lakes through ship ballast water. His team has developed an automated, shipboard, rapid-testing system capable of reporting in real time the presence of any live organisms in ballast water following treatment.
Ship ballast water - which contains and transports non-native species -- has "caused havoc in the world's aquatic ecosystems by discharging numerous invasive species and pathogens where they don't belong," Dr. Ram said. New regulations to prevent the spread of non-native aquatic species into the Great Lakes will require ballast water treatment and exchange outside the Great Lakes basin to kill or nearly eliminate all live organisms in the discharged ballast water.
The most recent work of Dr. Ram's lab team is supported by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Project #964.