A nonprofit research center in Massachusetts has received a $6.9 million grant to study the toxic algae bloom known as red tide.
The National Science Foundation and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recently awarded the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Centers for Oceans and Human Health the five-year grant.
The center plans to study domoic acid and saxitoxin which are produced by algae blooms. Both toxins can cause illness in humans when ingested through infected shellfish.
WHOI scientist John Stegeman says research on Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Maine can be applied internationally. Stegeman hopes his team can learn to “understand and predict blooms.”
Grant funding will help the center study zebrafish embryos as well.