NOAA Fisheries Milford Laboratory staff members Diane Kapareiko, Dorothy Jeffress, and Gary Wikfors were honored for creativity, persistence, and scientific rigor during the Department of Commerce 68th Annual Honor Awards ceremony.
The team received a silver medal for discovering a probiotic bacterial strain living within a healthy, adult oyster that protects larval oysters from disease, documenting the mechanism by which probiotic effects occur, and ensuring that the strain is safe for use by shellfish hatchery workers.
These scientific accomplishments led to a formal partnership with a company to explore commercialization of the probiotic strain. Successful commercialization will provide an environmentally friendly way to improve oyster hatchery production.
