Timely machine first to read DNA

Some time in the not-too-distant future every piece of meat sold in a butcher's shop will be able to be traced to its country of origin, the farm of origin and even the individual animal which was slaughtered to produce it.
      Such identification and verification will be a powerful way of enforcing meat standards and trade quotas around the world.
      The key to this identification is DNA.
      Using newly-designed mass spectrometers, agencies will be able to match the DNA profile of a piece of steak to that of the original animal by looking up the DNA database that will be kept by farmers and relevant authorities.
      Murdoch University is getting Australia's first mass spectrometer, which can analyse the DNA composition of animal and plant samples.
      With a $350,000 grant from the Australian Research Council, Murdoch's State Agricultural and Biotechnology Centre will be buying a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer. The unit, which is being jointly funded with other WA universities, Agriculture WA and the Grains Research and Development Corporation, will cost more than $500,000.
      "Apart from prototypes around the world, we will be getting the first commercial version anywhere," said SABC lab manager Dr Dave Berryman.

The new machine will be able to analyse 3000 samples a day, instead of the current 120.

The unit -- a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometer -- will be housed in the SABC's $800,000 extension, which will be a centre for university and industry research.
The technology behind the specially-designed mass spectrometer has only just been developed.
Until now the main problems for analysing DNA have been that:

traditional mass spectrometers blast big molecules like DNA to pieces, making it impossible to take readings, and
the excessive cost and time of alternative methods.

The new machine will be able to analyse 3000 samples a day, instead of the current 120, and will bring the cost of testing down from $40-$60 a sample to about $5, said SABC director Professor Mike Jones.
      Buying the machine is timely given the explosion of research in the DNA field, much of which would be hampered without a quick analysis tool like the MALDI-TOF MS. The unit has commercial applications that will be exploited, too.
      Professor Jones said the machine would be used by those from a range of disciplines and commercial areas.
      Obvious applications include animal and plant identification, breeding and export verification, crop and animal improvement, molecular diagnostic analysis (identifying pests and diseases) and population genetics studies.

Further information