WHO WE ARE Ana Bardales, above, came to the Aplysia Facility seven years ago from San Juan, Puerto Rico with an M.S. in marine biology. Ana specializes in culturing Aplysia from egg to post metamorphic juveniles but is involved in every phase of the facility's day to day operation.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF OUR SLIME?
Please give us your feedback: Email us at
tcapo@rsmas.miami.edu
orpwalsh@rsmas.miami.edu
1) Having problems with our animals? Let us know, we're committed to providing the highest quality animals to meet your needs.
2) Have any special needs? Aged animals, special diets, or large numbers of cohorts for longitudinal studies? We can help. |
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THE DAISY CHAIN:
NEWS FROM THE PRODUCTION LINE...continued from page 1
Tom earned his B.S. in biology from St. John's University in 1973, and has been nurturing Aplysia pretty much since then. He started at Columbia for three years, followed by nearly a decade in Woods Hole, after which he joined UM in 1988, when the HHMI sponsored facility moved to Miami. (Incidentally, while Tom is not attending to slugs, he also manages a finfish culture facility which cultures a number of species of marine fish, including redfish and seatrout.) Tom is extremely enthusiastic about receiving the NCRR grant, noting that "I've known for years that our cultured animals are far superior to field-caught organisms for most research purposes. This grant allows us to get our prices down to where we can convince users of field-collected Aplysia to give our cultured animals a try. I'm sure that many will see improvement in consistency in their research!" With the increased demand that is projected from culture converts, Tom predicts that Resource production costs per animal will decline, so that prices can remain low in the future.
Another recent improvement in our production line you may have noticed is that each shipping list now contains a "Cohort Number". Through this number we will be able to trace each animal back to a particular set of parents and siblings. Thus, if a researcher has a particularly good or bad experience with a shipment of organisms, we can begin to keep track of any cohort to cohort variation. This will be especially important when linked to scientific data as our science projects come up to full speed.
 Finally, although consistency in production quality is the mainstay of the Resource, Tom is willing to culture Aplysia under just about any circumstances to suit an investigator's needs, "We can try to grow or acclimate these critters under any conditions. If, for example, an investigator wants Aplysia raised in complete darkness, fed only green algae, you name it, we'll try it". Tom Capo will continue to oversee all aspects of production and to place his wet thumb of approval on each shipment, along with the pronouncement of "we ship no slime before its time!"
(Above right) One of the keys to closing the life-cycle of Aplysia is having a regular supply of food. The development of algal growth facility (above) was a key to success. More on this subject in our next issue. |
