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Faculty
Jerry J. Brand
Professor, Ph.D.

Email: jbrand@mail.utexas.edu
Website
Main Office: BIO 321
Phone: (512) 471-1589

Mailing Address
The University of Texas at Austin
School of Biological Sciences
1 University Station A6700
Austin ,Texas 78712-0183
Jerry J. Brand

Research Summary

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.