MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY | DIVISION OF RESEARCH & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
INNOVATIONWORKS SPRING/SUMMER 2021 | VOLUME 2
OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER NEWSLETTER
SKROWNOITAVONNI
THE WORLD IS HIS OYSTER The average seafood connoisseur likely assumes that the seafood they purchase locally and consume was caught from nearby waters, along their respective coastline. Many would be surprised to learn that many of the oysters they eat are not native or their seed are not native, but are grown in local waters. While that may not be common for many coastal states, it is indeed true for oyster supplies in Maryland. Dr. Ming Liu and a team of researchers at Morgan State’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL), home of the university’s aquaculture facility in Calvert County, Maryland, are working to change that narrative. They are developing Maryland superior native stock – the Chesapeake PEARL Oyster!
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Dr. Liu is an oyster genomics researcher who joined Morgan in 2017. He is the principal investigator, and lead on all things related to oyster production at the PEARL. In joining Morgan, Dr. Liu was looking to capitalize on the huge market opportunity that currently exists in Maryland. There are a number of challenges to Maryland aquaculture industry, such as mortality caused by diseases and low-salinity waters, slow growth, and lack of selective breeding programs to develop locally derived lines. Despite the conditions, Dr. Liu and his team, along with the help of student researchers, have been working to develop oyster lines with superior traits including improved survival and growth rates, generating more profit for hatcheries struggling with high demand, cost, and limited supply. One byproduct of their research is the creation of Maryland-derived triploid and tetraploid oysters. Triploid oysters, with three sets of chromosomes, are sterile, and more energy efficient, which promotes rapid growth and superior meat quality. In the Chesapeake Bay region, more than 90% of farmed oysters are triploids. Commercial triploid production uses male tetraploid oysters (four sets of chromosomes) mating with female diploids (nature oysters), thus making tetraploids and tetraploids are very precious because they are difficult to produce. Maryland’s oyster industry does not have its own tetraploid broodstock, which forces Maryland growers to rely on other states. (continued on page 4)
Dr. Ming Liu in his PEARL laboratory
WHAT DRIVES INNOVATION?
It's not Indy 500 racers, or creative Uber drivers. Innovation Drivers are the factors that drive both “big I” (new and potentially disruptive innovation), and “little i” (incremental) innovation. Common drivers of organizational innovation include: consumer need, improved quality, creation of new markets, reduced labor and material costs, improved efficiency, reduced environmental damage and energy consumption, and conformance to regulations. Innovators themselves may be driven by a personal or emotional connection. Each issue of Innovation Works will provide the reader a window on what drives Morgan’s innovators.
MORGAN'S ENERGETIC INNOVATOR
As the inventor behind Morgan’s first-ever technology licensing agreement, Seong W. Lee, PhD is no novice to innovation. Dr. Lee and his team of students developed the “Method and Design of the UltraClean Mobile Combustor for Waste Biomass and Poultry Litter Disposal,” known as Cykloburn. The Cykloburn technology among other innovations taking place in Dr. Lee’s lab stemmed from a variety of “innovation drivers.” This included making improvements in the technology’s quality and efficiency, in addition to reduced environmental damage and energy consumption. The system itself, which feeds directly to the needs of poultry farmers, significantly reduces poultry waste, creates electricity for operations and provides heating for poultry houses, reducing operational costs for the farmers. That was just the tip of the innovation iceberg that lived beneath the surface of Dr. Lee’s lab, the Center for Advanced Systems and Environmental Control Technologies (CAESECT), in the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering.
Dr. Seong Lee and a student collaborator
The success of the Cycloburn system didn’t slow down the energetic Lee and the innovation taking place in his lab. After being awarded a U.S. Patent for the System and Method for Biomass Combustion (U.S. Patent 10,253,974) he and his students transitioned into Phase Two of their Cycloburn technology - development of the feeder drying system (U.S. Patent Pending) . The technology recycles the residual heat from the poultry liter combustion process to reduce moisture content of poultry litter feed, to reduce moisture content of poultry litter and also improve combustion efficiency and reduce gas emissions. Further development of the system continues to align with Dr. Lee’s initial reasoning for his work: decrease environmental pollution, increase energy efficiency, and reduce costs for Maryland’s poultry farmers. (continued on page 4)
MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY | DIVISION OF RESEARCH & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
THE WORLD IS HIS OYSTER
(continued from page 1)
Although it will not be the first of its kind, it will be the first triploid oyster line local to Maryland. The triploid oyster seed supplied to Maryland oyster growers are imported from Virginia, or they are made from the tetraploids that are either imported from Virginia. The tetraploid oyster being developed by Dr. Liu and his team provides more options for growers, as it can also be selected for unique flavoring and shape. Because of their genetic makeup, these oysters can adapt to local waters (low salinity), grow more rapidly, and experience higher survival rates. The shortened breeding cycle with customizable variations will provide a diverse range of options for farmers and prove beneficial to a customer base with varied preferences.
SKROWNOITAVONNI
In conjunction with the Office of Technology, the team is working on the TM commercialization of the first Chesapeake PEARL Oyster. Upon the project’s completion, Dr. Liu and his team will have produced the first-generation tetraploid oyster line, which would be the first of its kind in the state of Maryland. Work on this project was initiated, and continues, through OTT’s I-GAP funding program and continues with a recent Maryland Sea Grant award of $140,000 – helping to further work on the production of the oyster line.
Nine-month old PEARL triploid oysters
In addition to Dr. Liu’s oyster genomics research, PEARL researchers are recent awardees of about $1.5 million in grants from various agencies. Through these grants, the PEARL team is exploring a diverse set of topics that include: public perceptions of trash in Maryland waterways, microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay, effective algal feeds for oysters, and non-native sika deer management on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, amongst others. Whether it is above ground, or below sea level, innovation is thriving at Morgan and beyond the Greater Baltimore area. The groundbreaking work taking place in southern Maryland expands the economic impact of Morgan statewide and furthers the mission of “Growing the Future, Leading the World,” and in this case…one shell at a time.
ENERGETIC INNOVATOR
(continued from page 1)
Dr. Lee’s innovations expand beyond environmentally friendly and energy saving solutions for agricultural waste. Staying in line with projects that help in reducing negative impacts on the environment, Lee and his team are working with an industry partner on a mobile cooling system for shellfish under a Maryland Industrial Partners (MIPS) project. Another energy centric project Dr. Lee and his students are working on, focuses on solar energy to provide power to mobile and tiny homes. He is also contributing to the Base 11 Rocketry program as a co-Principal designer of the rocket in development. The efforts of Dr. Lee and his team of students has not gone unnoticed. Dr. Lee was the 2018 Awardee in the inaugural Innovation of the Year Awards, in the Physical Science Award category for the Ultra-Clean Mobile Combustor for Waste Biomass with his students, Xuejun Qian and Raghulkumar Chandrasekaran. Dr Lee is a inventor/co-inventor on 14 Intellectual Property Disclosures, the highest number at Morgan.
Dr. Lee and his team of student innovators
Dr. Lee continues his teaching and leadership in the School of Engineering’s Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, shaping the minds of future leaders. He has a hand in innovation taking place across the entire campus and shows no sign of slowing down. His experiential learning opportunities and teachings embody the mission of Morgan in, ‘Growing the Future, Leading the World” – through energy innovation.
The Office of Technology Transfer hosts the Innovation of the Year awards annually to recognize and reward innovation taking place throughout Morgan.
2020 Innovation of the Year Award Winners Life Science Retrieval-Based Decision Support System to Enable to Automated Diagnosis of Multiple Skin Cancer Types from Dermoscopic Images Dr. Md Mahmudur Rahman Physical Science Nanoscale Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) Electrode Dr. Birol Ozturk, Alperen Guver, Peker Milas Information Science Multi-Layer Hidden Markov Model Based Intrusion Detection System Dr. Richard Dean, Dr. Farzad Moazzami, Wondimu K. Zegeye
Staff Innovator(s) of the Year , Sharon Oliver-Whitehurst and Team: Lawrence Manning & Steven Law Instructional Innovator of the Year , Natasha Otto Student Innovator of The Year , Tasmeer Alam Office of Technology Transfer Earl S. Richardson Library, Suite 207 443.885.1003 technology.transfer@morgan.edu www.morgan.edu/technologytransfer
Office of Technology Transfer Team: Wayne Swann, Executive Director Ray Dizon, Technology Transfer Manager Alexa Morris, Programs & Marketing Manager Kanika Ellis, Executive Administrator