| Project Title | Japanese Researcher | Position and Institution | Abstract of Research Project | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Researcher | ||||
| 1 | Development of in situ particulate radioactivity sensor | Kiminori Shitashima | Professor, Department of Marine Resources and Energy, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT) | The project seeks to address the data gap of particulate carbon flux by proving the principle of in situ particulate filtration (developed by UK team) and coupling this with a novel deployable beta detection module (developed by Japan team) to measure 234Th activity. This will provide the foundations for further work to raise the TRL of this device, and for the transfer of the innovative technology principles to other ocean variables (i.e. dissolved phase radionuclides; other radionuclides), and would constitute a step-change in our ability to measure carbon export in a changing ocean and in our understanding of carbon cycles. |
| Matthew Mowlem | Professor, Ocean Technology and Engineering, National Oceanography Centre (NOC) | |||
| 2 | RamaCam - In situ holographic imaging and chemical spectroscopy for long term scalable analysis of marine particles in deep-sea environments | Dhugal John Lindsay | Senior Staff Scientist, Research and Development Center for Submarine Resources, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) | A major focus will be developing technology to perform measurements with large volumetric throughputs to allow for meaningful studies of deep-sea environments beyond the euphotic zone, where the abundance of particles is several order-of-magnitude lower than in shallow and coastal areas. The sensor will achieve a step change in our ability to perform in-situ observations of deep-sea particles by enabling both micrometer resolution imaging and label-free chemical analysis of particles to be simultaneously performed in a compact low power setup, and the integrated analytical capabilities will be proven to TRL 4 “technology validated in laboratory”. |
| Blair Thornton | Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, University of Southampton | |||
| 3 | Alleviating the “Sample to Sequence” Bottleneck Using Novel Microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip Nucleic Acid Extraction Technologies | Tatsuhiro Fukuba | Research Scientist, Marine Technology and Engineering Center, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) | The aim of this project is to develop the novel miniaturized system to automate nucleic acid extraction processes that have been a “bottleneck” on realization of totally automated and integrated in situ nucleic acid analysis systems for marine molecular microbiology. At the Japan side, the microfluidic device for nucleic acid extraction with chemical lysis method from marine prokaryote cells will be developed and evaluated. At the UK side, the optimized protocol and the microfluidic device for nucleic acid extraction will be developed for wide range of marine microbes including phytoplankton cells. The microfluidic devices will be developed with the common interface format, and they will be integrated and evaluated with automated sampling and amplification/measurement technologies that have been developed at the both sides. It is promising to promote effective research and development by exchanging specialized knowledge, technologies, and know-how about automation of sample processing and down-stream analysis technologies. |
| Julie Robidart | Senior Scientist, Ocean Technology and Engineering, National Oceanography Centre | |||