Emeritus Professor Jack Loneragan and Deputy Premier Hendy Cowan launching the extension.

WA State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (SABC) consolidates its position as a leading national centre in biotechnology and a resource accessible to all WA researchers.

The new laboratories, officially opened by Deputy Premier Hendy Cowan in April, are co-funded by the State Government and Murdoch University.

Based in Murdoch’s Loneragan Building, the $1.65 million laboratories include a new $515,000 MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer used for DNA and protein analysis - and the first of its kind in Australia.

This equipment was purchased with support from all four public universities in WA, Agriculture WA and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

The SABC provides lab space and facilities both for academic researchers and to support new biotech companies, including Grain Biotechnology Australia (GBA).

GBA is now poised for rapid expansion as a result of the new high-tech facilities at the SABC.

Murdoch Vice Chancellor, Professor Steven Schwartz, said the new laboratories held the key to future research and development in agricultural biotechnology.

They provided an outstanding model for collaboration and efficient use of resources and facilities.

Opportunities existed in a variety of areas including plant, animal and microbial biotechnology, high throughput agricultural genetic analyses, and the developing fields of bioinformatics and genomics.

“The presence of companies like GBA will lead to the production of improved varieties of both conventional and genetically-modified (GM) wheat,” he said.

“The research is cutting edge and, in many cases, a first for Australian biotechnology.

“In the case of commercial companies at the SABC generating GM wheat, GM content testing and high-tech DNA fingerprinting of cattle, WA will be the first State in Australia to embark into these areas.

“The new SABC laboratories also provide the advanced equipment and critical mass of researchers needed to compete in the global market.”

SABC Director Professor Mike Jones said the new facilities would help the State’s economic future.

“Biotechnology will be one of the drivers of new companies, products and jobs in the new millennium,” said Professor Jones.

“It will contribute to sustainable development in agriculture, the environment and medicine, as has been the case in successful technology parks in the UK, Germany and the USA.”

He said that such parks thrived because they provided an entrepreneurial environment where researchers supported each other and fed off new ideas and developments.
“Now WA has the infrastructure and conditions to be a major centre for the establishment of such companies,” said Professor Jones.

He said WA was home to about seven per cent of Australia’s biotechnology companies and the total national revenue from biotechnology in 1998/99 was an estimated $965 million.

“The number of companies and resulting revenue is, however, expected to rise significantly in coming years,” he said.

The Chief Executive of Grain Biotechnology Australia, Dr Ian Edwards, said the State’s strong agricultural background provided outstanding potential.

He said one of the greatest advantages of the new facilities would be the intellectual contact with peers who were working in different fields but related technologies.

“The joint funding to set up new facilities at the SABC is a great example of private and public partnership and a win-win situation,” he said.

The laboratories are the direct result of a grant of $350,000 received under the Department of Commerce and Trade’s Centre of Excellence program.

The SABC already hosts researchers from 10 institutions in WA.

Agriculture WA has located its biotechnology services laboratory there, as has the Rumen Biotechnology Group which came to the SABC from the University of New England.