Marine Research Lab Tours at IMET

Join us for a tour of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) research institute near the National Aquarium. IMET’s work focuses on using aquaculture and genomics to conserve and create marine resources, including marine bioenergy, environmental sensor development, developmental biology, marine biomedicine, and sustainable urban ports and ecosystems. The center combines staff and resources from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the University of Maryland Baltimore.
We will begin our tour with Research Professor Dr. Eric Schott, who will provide an overview of the facility. Our next stop is the Aquaculture Research Center (ARC), a 1,800-square-meter marine facility that provides experimental capacity for research with marine organisms. ARC contains multiple tanks specifically designed to maintain broodstock and conduct research with various fish, 32 smaller tanks for carrying out experiments with multiple groups of fish, and a complete hatchery, with larval-rearing systems and facilities for the culture of food chain organisms for larval diets. It is completely contained, with a recirculating operation that includes large-scale mechanical and biological filtration and life-support systems for efficient reuse of tank water.
We are fortunate to be invited to tour two working laboratories at IMET. In the Chung Laboratory, Dr. Sook Chung will describe her work with the blue crab. Her recent work unlocked the genome sequence of this Maryland favorite, helping fishery managers with important information to maintain sustainable stock. Her research also focuses on the responses of crustaceans to the neurotransmitters, neurohormones, hormones, and pheromones that regulate critical events in the life cycle of these organisms.
In the Dooley Lab, Dr. Helen Dooley works to understand the immune systems of various marine animals, especially sharks, to find shared functions of specific molecules. Her work focuses on comparative immunology, with an interest in developing new technologies and therapies to understand, diagnose, and potentially treat human and animal diseases.