From Idea to Innovation

From Idea to Innovation

New investments and partnerships are helping create an "innovation ecosystem" to help translate discoveries into products and solutions for the future. This story originally appeared in the Winter 2025 edition of Transect.

For 50 years, Bigelow Laboratory has used fundamental science to illuminate the foundation of global ocean health. Increasingly, the institute's researchers have also strived to use their discoveries to improve the future for all life. In a rapidly changing world - with growing threats from climate change, fisheries collapse, declining federal scientific funding, and myriad other sources - those interconnected aims are more important than ever.

"Our main driving question is how does the world work," said Vice President for Research Beth Orcutt. "That foundational understanding can lead to new innovative ideas that are really going to make a difference."

That approach is exemplified by Bigelow Laboratory's new Maine Algal Research Infrastructure and Accelerator project within the Center for Algal Innovation. MARIA, funded by a $7 million award from the National Science Foundation, will strengthen biological research infrastructure, create education and workforce development opportunities, and bring together the interdisciplinary teams needed to get algae-based solutions to market. These activities will position Maine as a leader in the emerging blue economy and help achieve goals of the Maine Innovation Economy Action Plan, which specifically calls out growth opportunities for algae-based businesses.

Bigelow Laboratory and the MDI Biological Laboratory, the scientific partners of MARIA, are launching the project by building core knowledge about the compounds that algae produce and their potential applications in aquaculture, agriculture, energy, and medicine. To do so, they are mining the vast biological resources of the National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota. Housed at Bigelow Laboratory since 1980, NCMA maintains one of the most diverse collections of marine algae in the world.

Critically, about two-thirds of the collection's almost 4,000 strains are microalgae. While most existing businesses in Maine focus on macroalgae species like kelp, microalgae's incredible genetic diversity offers vast untapped potential.

"The first year of the project is focused on generating data - characterizing the algae we have and what those strains can do," said Senior Research Scientist Manoj Kamalanathan, one of the project's principal investigators. "We need that information to drive business ideas."

Kamalanathan is exploring the possibilities of using algae to produce hydrogen, a clean source of fuel. With a database like what they will create through MARIA, he'll be able to test many types of algae to find the strains that can produce hydrogen most efficiently and at scale.

MARIA will also provide kickstarter funding for scientists who want to tap into its intellectual resources. Through a competitive selection process, researchers will get support for early-stage, creative ideas that could potentially solve real problems.

This early support is essential and often hard to come by. For example, Senior Research Scientist Mike Lomas, the other principal investigator of the project, is working with MDI Biological Laboratory to scan NCMA's collection for algae that produce anti-inflammatory compounds. Together, the two institutions have the expertise and capacity to do the work, and, if selected for funding, the research would get the boost it needs to move forward.

"The project is proof," Lomas said, "that there are these partnerships and ideas ready to go that can benefit from the investments, knowledge, and infrastructure MARIA will provide."

But MARIA isn't just about research. Several of the project partners are in the business-development space. Maine Technology Institute, Gulf of Maine Ventures, and Maine Center for Entrepreneurs work to support and stimulate entrepreneurship and can help turn ideas into marketable products. Meanwhile, the other partners are educational institutions, including Southern Maine Community College, University of New England, and Colby College, that can encourage entrepreneurism in students and help train a skilled workforce.

Using that comprehensive expertise, the team will develop a training program targeting mid-career professionals and then match those students to the businesses that need them - helping keep good jobs and skilled workers in Maine.

"These network nodes existed, but the impediment was getting everyone meaningfully connected," Lomas said. "In Maine, we have all the strengths we need to create an effective innovation ecosystem, and now we have the infrastructure to bring them together."

As part of that effort, Bigelow Laboratory has actively engaged in outreach to create new connections and inspire exciting ideas. In September, Bigelow Laboratory and Gulf of Maine Research Institute co-hosted an event where Orcutt and Lomas, alongside GMRI's Chief Ventures Officer Blaine Grimes, discussed opportunities to harness microalgae in biotech. And earlier that month, Northeastern University's Roux Institute hosted an event in Portland highlighting NCMA in a hands-on brainstorming session on algae-based solutions.

At the Algal Biomass Summit trade show in Houston this October, the NCMA team also showcased information about MARIA to start enticing outside scientists, investors, and businesses to come to Maine. And in November, Bigelow Laboratory co-sponsored the Blue Venture Investment Summit in Portland to build new relationships and start exploring what Bigelow Laboratory can offer to "blue technology" investors.

This approach builds on a model that the institute has been refining for several years with the Coast-Cow-Consumer project to address methane emissions from livestock. Like MARIA, C3 has grown from a spark of an idea to a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary effort to use algae to solve real-world problems.

The C3 team is developing an algae-based additive for cattle feed that could alter cows' digestive system in a way that would reduce methane emissions from their burps. Though there are strains of macroalgae known to contain compounds that do that, the researchers have been screening species to find the most promising microalgal strains as well. From there they can create a product that can be produced at a large scale - ideally supporting a local aquaculture industry in the process - that is healthy for cows, generates return on investment for farmers, and benefits the environment.

They've built a network of what Senior Research Scientist Nichole Price calls a "unique and exciting mix of experts" in diverse fields such as algal physiology, ecotoxicology, socioeconomics, carbon accounting, and animal health. As with MARIA, partners that can communicate the science, and business development entities that can untangle regulatory and market barriers, are also central to the team.

Solutions-focused collaborations like MARIA and C3 draw on Bigelow Laboratory's expertise in cutting-edge science and require the project teams to seek out new, interdisciplinary partners. But, Orcutt said, that exemplifies the collaborative spirit that's defined the institute from day one and characterizes the ways its interdisciplinary scientists broadly share their work.

"Our analytical capabilities and our repository of algae are unparalleled on a global scale," Price said. "I feel so fortunate to have these incredible resources from teams across the institution to lean on - heavily - for developing solution-oriented projects."

Cooperative, curious science has inspired Bigelow Laboratory researchers for 50 years, and it's continuing to inspire the bold, applied projects that will be a growing - and complementary - focus to its fundamental research in the coming decades.

"We've got innovation potential here, both in our scientists and the assets we have as a lab," Orcutt said. "Thinking out to the next 50 years, I believe we can make a real difference in the world by investing to unlock that full potential."

Photo Captions

Photo 1: (Credit: Greta Rybus).

Photo 2: Haematococcus is a type of algae grown commercially as a source of astaxanthin, a valuable nutrient for the aquaculture and nutraceutical industries (Credit: Pete Countway).

Photo 3: Bigelow Laboratory Scientists and other MARIA partners engage in speaker series, trade shows, and community workshops to share information, attract new collaborators, and brainstorm bold ideas for how to leverage the potential of algae (Credit, bottom left: Mike Lomas, others: Tim Greenway).

Photo 4: (Credit: Brittney Honisch).

Photo 5-6: Live cow herds and experimental "bottle herds" enable the Coast-Cow-Consumer team to conduct multidisciplinary studies on the potential of algae-based feed supplements to reduce methane emissions by cattle (Credit: Colby College).

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