Mary Hagedorn
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'Coral species are at risk worldwide. Increases in sea surface temperatures, disease, high levels of nutrients from sewage, and toxic pesticides, cause stress and result in bleaching and destruction of large portions of the reef. I believe there are many reasons that coral cryopreservation would be good for conservation. First, frozen sperm would help maintain diversity for shrinking populations. Second, corals are dying from unknown diseases in all our oceans. A standard way to assess disease is by maintaining coral cells in cell culture, and frozen coral cell lines would give researchers access to cells throughout the year. Third, although unimaginable, we could loose an entire reef system in an ocean. Maintaining the genetic diversity of these systems will be critical to reestablishment of new populations in restored, future habitats.'
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Dr. Mary Hagedorn is a Physiologist who has pioneered many state-of-the-art techniques that may help save our coral reefs. She received her Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and is a Research Scientist at the National Zoological Park at the Smithsonian Institution. She has worked in aquatic ecosystems around the world, has taught many university-level classes, lectures frequently to professional and lay audiences, maintains an active laboratory with graduate students and post doctoral fellows, and is a successful researcher and active grant writer. In 2000, she received the prestigious George E. Burch Fellowship in Theoretic Medicine and Affiliated Theoretic Sciences, and in 2005 was nominated as a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation.
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Dr. Hagedorn has developed a conservation program for coral species in the Pacific using cryobiology, the understanding of cellular systems under cold conditions, and cryopreservation, the freezing of sperm and embryos. In this approach, the embryos and sperm are frozen and placed into liquid nitrogen where they remain frozen, but alive for decades in a genetic bank. She is now applying these techniques to endangered coral species in the Caribbean.
The work of Dr. Hagedorn is important for SECORE because it contributes to ex situ conservation methods which are complimentary to other types of ex situ methods practiced by SECORE.
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Mary Hagedorn, Ph.D.Fish PhysiologistDepartment of Reproductive Sciences3001 Conn. Ave. Washington, DC 20008USA
Mary Hagedorn - Bios & Profiles
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