In Thailand Bryo Technology is collaborating with researchers at Kasetsart University to refine methods for detecting low level toxins using bryozoan embryos. Focusing on the non-fouling bryozoan, Hislopia, the researchers aim to produce a reliable, low cost method for studying the developmental effects of extremely low levels of water pollutants.

In July Bryo Technologies will host two researchers from the Natural History Museum in London. Dr. Beth Okamura and Dr. Alex Gruhl plan to examine bryozoan parasites in Cowan Lake, near Wilmington, Ohio – one of the few places where a specific myxozoan parasite species can reliably be found.

Bryo Technologies has been invited to participate in a study to explore a novel method to control bryozoan fouling through gene disruption during settlement and early development. This will be the first study of gene expression during statoblast dormancy. Specific genes identified during germination and settlement and their subsequent silencing are expected to provide insight into the early development of freshwater invertebrates.

Bryo Technologies has designed a new generation bryozoan monitoring devices to be installed at the bar racks of three power plants in Illinois. These are essentially pairs of acrylic boxes housing bryozoan growth panels. They are clamped inside an aluminum frame that tracks up and down the bar racks for easy access. The internal baffles and flow-through design replicate growing conditions in the least accessible parts of the cooling systems.

A small, non-fouling bryozoan, once believed to be extremely rare, has been found in great abundance on the forebay walls of a midwestern nuclear power plant. Bryo Technologies identified the bryozoan as Sineportella forbesi, previously known only from a single site in the Little Wabash River near Carmi, Illinois. This discovery may now make it easier for researchers to study the biology of this smallest known freshwater bryozoan.