October 24, 2013

Amir Sagi, a professor at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, received the Global Aquaculture Alliance's (GAA) inaugural Novus Global Aquaculture Innovation Award in Paris, France on October 9.

Sagi got the award for the novel biotechnology application to produce all-male populations of the giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, through temporal RNA interference.

Sagi's innovation was selected over 15 other creative innovations to capture the award. The 16 applicants dealt with nine species of marine and freshwater fish and shellfish and originated from 11 countries - Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, India, Israel, Peru, Korea, Taiwan and the US.

Some innovations dealt with the species themselves, such as production of virus-free grouper or endangered Amazonian paiche. Others dealt with improved design for production systems, including cages, ponds and indoor recirculating systems. Still others dealt with cloud-based data collection systems and disease control.

The six judges selected Sagi's innovation as the winner because its application addressed a key obstacle in the production of Macrobrachium rosenbergii - manual sorting of juveniles by gender. The judges felt that this innovation could stimulate expansion in freshwater prawn production without genetic modification or use of exogenous hormones.

"The GAA Standards Oversight Committee recommended the Novus Global Aquaculture Innovation Award as a way of recognising the integral role of creative advances in driving continuous improvements in aquaculture," said George Chamberlain, GAA president.

Sagi is the past president of the International Society of Invertebrate Reproduction and Development and former dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Ben Gurion University. Sagi's research culminated with the discovery of the insulin-like androgenic hormone in decapod crustaceans. Now, for the first time, this technology is available to commercial Macrobrachium rosenbergii farmers worldwide.

"The beauty of our biotechnology lies in the fact that it represents the first commercialisation of temporal RNA interference with no use of chemicals, hormones or generation of genetic modifications. To sustain its rapid growth, the aquaculture industry will need to consistently introduce the latest scientific developments and innovative technologies. I am confident that the R&D community will propose many more such applications in the near future," Sagi said.