Professor

Ph.D. Purdue University

jbrand@mail.utexas.edu

Office Bio 321

(512) 471-1589

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A major research interest of Jerry Brand is the mechanism of freezing damage in algal cells and processes that protect them from chilling and freezing damage. Studies are directed toward the development of improved processes for cryopreservation (freezing and storing for an indefinitely long period of time at liquid nitrogen temperature) of living algae. These studies have led to the development of protocols to that have facilitated the successful cryopreservation of nearly 2/3 of the strains in the Culture Collection of Algae at the University of Texas. Jerry Brand studies metabolic processes in cyanobacteria that influence their physiological characteristics and ecological distribution. Research in this laboratory is directed toward characterization of a recently discovered cyanobacterium that produces multicellular “nodules” and is capable of dinitrogen fixation in the absence of heterocysts. Additional work is directed toward nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in microbial mats and methods that selectively inactivate or insert genes at specific sites in cyanobacterial genomes, using “Targetron” methodology.

J. Brand interacts extensively with the community of scientists, engineers and business interests that is developing new commercial uses of algae, especially as a source of transportation fuel.

Selected Publications


Li, Z., Yu, J., Kim, K. and Brand, J. 2010. Nitrogen fixation by a marine non-heterocystous cyanobacterium requires a heterotrophic bacterial consort. Environmental Microbiology (In press).

Yu, J., Li, Z. and Brand, J. 2009. Characterization of green algae isolated from infected human skin. Phycological Research 57, 251 - 258.

Paik, M., Kim, H., Lee, J., Brand, J. and Kim, K. 2009. Separation of triacylglycerols and free fatty acids in microalgae lipids by solid-phase extraction with sodium carbonate for separate fatty acid profiling analysis as tert-butyldimethylsilyl esters by gas chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A1216, 5917-5923.

Piasecki, B, Diller, K. and Brand, J. 2009. Cryopreservation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: A cause of low viability at high cell density. Cryobiology 58, 103 - 109.

Li, Z. and Brand, J. 2007. Leptolynghya nodulosa sp. nov. (Oscillatoriaceae), a subtropical marine cyanobacterium that produces a unique multicellular structure. Phycologia 46, 396 - 401

Day, J.G. and Brand, J. Cryopreservation methods for maintaining microalgal cultures; in Algal Culturing Techniques, Chap 12, pp. 165 – 188, ed. R. A. Andersen; Elsevier Pub. Co., Amsterdam, 2005.

Zhao, Y., Shi, Y., Zhao, W., Xu, H., Wang, X., Brown, N., Brand, J. and Zhao, J. 2005. CcbP, a calcium-binding protein from Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, provides evidence that calcium ions regulate heterocyst differentiation. Nat. Acad. Sciences, Proceedings, USA, 102, pp. 5744-5748.