“Our coral spawning facility built by the Coral Spawning Lab not only enabled us to conduct the first successful coral spawning in Germany but became a vital part of our coral research. Thanks to our spawning facilities we were able to have three spawning events (Australia 2020, Fiji & Australia 2021) at our institute in Northern Germany within just one year. Particularly during the pandemic it is fantastic to be able to work with coral larvae without the need to travel. In the future we plan on having spawning events every couple of months, making most of the long-distance, heavy-logistics travelling obsolete.”
Dr Sam Nietzer, University of Oldenburg, Germany
"Manipulation of annual temperature and solar cycles alongside monthly lunar cycles creates a system that enables us to observe up to 12 spawning events per year for each of our target species. With the future focus of our laboratory shifting to CRISPR-Cas9, this enables us to exponentially accelerate the field of gene editing in corals well beyond what is currently capable using natural spawning alone. Furthermore, shifting the diel cycle within our systems enables us to carry out our work during the day, greatly improving productivity. This combination of advantageous qualities ...makes for a favourable environment to further coral research."
Max Dhillon, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia