Project Grant 20213353034359

This $389,782 Cooperative Agreement award from the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025), aims to develop highly specific and validated TaqMan assays for the simultaneous detection of two critical shrimp diseases: Hepatopancreatic Microsporidiosis (HPM) caused by Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) and Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND) caused...

Quornix, LLC received a $174,621 Project Grant awarded on September 1, 2025, through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program (CFDA 10.212) to develop a therapeutic feed additive for shrimp aquaculture. The product will function as a cost-effective prophylactic and responsive treatment for vibriosis, a bacterial disease caused by marine pathogens that significantly impacts shrimp farming operations. By delivering this therapeutic...

This Cooperative Agreement award of $835,829 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Sea Grant Support program (CFDA 11.417) is aimed at identifying beneficial bacteria that facilitate healthy lobster egg development and testing them against pathogens that cause mortality or morbidity in lobster embryos. The key objectives are to characterize the microbiome of lobster eggs, examine how microbiome shifts relate to egg mortality, and determine which microbes act...

This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $880,632 supports research into drivers and effects of latent phage activation in marine SAR11 bacteria. Funded under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), this three-year award to the University of California, Los Angeles will fill critical knowledge gaps about host-virus interactions in the global oceans. Through field surveys, laboratory experiments, and mathematical modeling, the grantee will quantify the frequency of prophage infections...

Coastaloceanvision Inc. was awarded a $300,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Project Grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a novel surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology for rapidly detecting and quantifying human pathogens in seafood. The SERS technology uses a higher energy laser wavelength, an innovative mixture of silver-coated nanoparticles, and a fiber optic probe designed for direct use on seafood tissues and environmental...

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania received a $625,000 Project Grant award from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The two-year project aims to identify and characterize immunobiotics for fish that specifically enhance mucosal immune function and disease resistance. The researchers will select immunobiotics found naturally in fish mucosa and test their ability to...

This Project Grant award of $410,977 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) will fund research to develop methods for designing effective bacteriophage cocktails to precisely control the growth of unwanted bacteria in water systems. The key objectives are to: Identify genetic and transcriptomic markers of synergistic and antagonistic interactions between bacteriophages to guide the rational design of safe and...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (CFDA 47.074 Biological Sciences) provides $786,821 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop synthetic microbiome consortia to improve feed efficiency and prevent pathogen colonization in aquaculture systems. The key products and services to be delivered include: Constructing synthetic microbiomes to increase feed efficiency in the brine shrimp, Artemia salina,...

Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary The University of Florida received a $499,367 Cooperative Agreement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025), effective September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2027. The project aims to develop and validate a multiplex assay utilizing nanopore sequencing technology to detect six economically significant shrimp pathogens...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $499,919 Small Business Innovation Research Program project grant to AA Plasma LLC to develop non-equilibrium short-pulsed discharge technology for removal of antibiotics and pathogens from aquacultural water facilities. The SBIR program seeks to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector to meet federal research needs. AA Plasma LLC will use the two-year grant period beginning July 2021 to advance a plasma discharge...