New grant gets to the root of plant growth

A joint bid from Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia (UWA) was successful in securing $600,000 from the Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities grant to build a plant growth facility to boost biotechnological research.

The two-part facility, which will be located on both campuses, will have indoor chambers that can control conditions very specifically for experiments and greenhouses where temperature and light can be adjusted.

“This is a fantastic boost for the Western Australian plant science community,” said Professor Richard Oliver, Director of the Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens.

“In particular, the facility will provide support for researchers looking at transgenic biotechnology solutions to agricultural problems such as disease and environmental stress.”

Professor Oliver’s major collaborators in the facility included Professor Mike Jones, Director of the State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre at Murdoch, Professor Hans Lambers at the Department of Agriculture UWA and Professor David Day at the Department of Biochemistry UWA.

The facility will be operational in early 2002.