November 7, 2003

New Marine Biotechnology Partnership between COMB and Israelis Announced by Governor Ehrlich

Tel Aviv, ISRAEL – Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. announced establishment of the Maryland-Israel Collaborative Marine Biotechnology Research and Development Program during his economic development mission to Israel this week. The Collaborative Marine Biotechnology Research and Development Program is a partnership between the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute’s (UMBI) Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) and several Israeli research institutions. The collaboration will study and develop new environmentally sustainable and economically feasible aquaculture technologies and explore new avenues for the production of marine natural compounds with pharmaceutical potential.

On hand to sign the research partnership agreement were UMBI President Jennie Hunter-Cevera and COMB Director Yonathan Zohar, members of the governor’s delegation to Israel. “Life in both Maryland and Israel is centered around the marine and estuarine environment and both states have a long track record in basic and applied marine research,” said Dr. Zohar. “This partnership will help reverse our seafood deficits, protect the marine environment and lead to high value marine products.”

This program was initiated by the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and by the Maryland/Israel Development Center on behalf of the State of Maryland. Each government will provide $250,000 annually for three years to fund the research. The program will be administered by UMBI in Maryland and by BARD, the US Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, in Israel.

Coverage of the meetings to strengthen biotechnology alliances between Maryland and Israel was featured in today’s Montgomery Gazette http://www.gazette.net/we/ . The official Governor’s Press Office Release is available at
http://www.umbi.umd.edu/~pubrel/Israel_UMBI_release.doc .

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute was mandated by the state of Maryland legislature in 1985 as "a new paradigm of state economic development in biotech-related sciences." With five major research and education centers across Maryland, UMBI is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. The centers are the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville; Center for Biosystems Research in College Park; and Center of Marine Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology Center, and the Institute of Human Virology, all in Baltimore.