Agricultural Biotech booming at SABC

THE WA State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (SABC) on the Murdoch Campus is bursting at the seams.

It now hosts 110 research scientists full time, and another 90 researchers from other labs and institutions come to use its advanced facilities.

The SABC now houses 16 research groups, including the Plant Biotechnology Research Group, the Centre for High Throughput Agricultural Genetic Analysis, the Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, groups in Animal Parasitology, Animal Virology, Rumen Biotech, Perth Zoo, the Department of Agriculture Biotechnology Laboratory, and the companies Grain Biotech Australia, Saturn Biotech and Proteomics International.

A 24 place extension opened by Management Committee Chair the Hon. Hendy Cowan in April 2000 is full, and such is the demand that new initiatives and start-up companies will have to be turned away unless current plans for another major extension to the Loneragan Building are implemented as soon as possible.

In States such as Victoria and Queensland, their Governments have already invested heavily in needed infrastructure for biotechnology. It is to be hoped that the newly formed Premier’s Office of Science and Innovation will appreciate the value of concentrated biotechnology infrastructure in terms of solving so many of today’s problems in agriculture, health, mining and the environment and that a State biotechnology policy will be developed.

Researchers at the SABC have done an outstanding job in establishing this major national facility, grant by grant, over the past 10 years. Given WA’s nationally dominant position in plant and animal production and the export dollars earned worth about $5 billion to the State annually, there is every justification in more State support for agricultural biotechnology.

The new disciplines and technologies such as genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics provide powerful tools to support development of sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture. This is a period that requires systematic innovation to keep ahead in the competitive world market, but it can’t be done on a shoestring.

PROFESSOR MIKE JONES SABC DIRECTOR