Recent achievements include:

• Developed innovative technologies to produce seafood in completely contained, environmentally friendly and sustainable recirculated aquaculture systems. A process patent has been issued.
• Established and led a very successful, state-wide program on blue crab research , hatchery technology and stock enhancement. Closed the entire life cycle of the blue crab in captivity, produced over 40,000 juvenile crabs and experimentally released 25,000 individually tagged crabs to the Chesapeake Bay. A process patent application has been filed.
• Made significant progress in the study of harmful algae of the Chesapeake Bay. Discovered a new algal toxin, which may have been responsible for the fish mortalities attributed to Pfiesteria. Patent application filed.
• Developed a sensitive diagnostic technology for the detection of the Dermo disease in the Eastern Oyster. Patent issued.
• Currently mapping the viral communities of the Chesapeake Bay.
• Completed the isolation of a marine sponge-associated microbe that produces anti-malarial drugs. This is the first isolation of a microbe from a marine invertebrate that produces a bioactive compound previously ascribed to the invertebrate. Patent application filed.
• Made significant progress in the isolation and identification of Chesapeake Bay bacteria that bioremediate PCBs. Two patent applications filed.
• Use Zebrafish to study the molecular basis of muscle, heart and brain muscle development.
• Initiated the UMBI-wide bioinformatics program that involves strong research and teaching collaborations with UMBC and UMCP.
• Built one of the foremost programs in extremophile research and adaptation to life in extreme environments.
• COMB has been designated as a Research Center of the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) , a NOAA-funded consortium that involves four "Historically Black Colleges and Universities" (HBCU) (including University of Maryland Eastern Shore), with the goal of educating under-represented minority students in the marine sciences.development of a hormonal kit to manipulate spawning in cultured fish.