BIO news: Victoria goes nano at BIO

Victoria got off to a flying start at BIO today, announcing a slew of new initiatives and $66 million in funding for two new scientific research centres.

Leading the Victorian delegation to BIO for the seventh year in a row, Premier Steve Bracks and Treasurer and Innovation Minister John Brumby jointly announced a number of initiatives, including new centres for nanofabrication and metabolomics, a rapid clinical test for the detection of meningococcal infection, a needle-free insulin delivery system and new technology to delay leaf senescence.

They also announced that a world leader in molecular biology had been recruited to head Victoria's new regenerative medicine institute.

Bracks announced the establishment of a $57 million Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN), which will serve as headquarters for a national fabrication network and will work towards developing new bio-compatible materials for medical implants and rapid and disposable diagnostic tests to improve the detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks.

The MCN will be located in Clayton, near the Australian Synchrotron, CSIRO, Monash University and the Small Scale Technology Cluster.

The Metabolomics Centre will be headquartered at the University of Melbourne and will develop biomarkers for pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental applications.

Bracks said the MCN and the metabolomics centre will be jointly funded by the state and federal governments under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

They also announced two new technologies, both developed by spin-off companies from Nanotechnology Victoria (NanoVic). Interstitial NanoSystems is a therapeutic delivery venture which is developing transdermal and pulmonary delivery of nanoparticle medicines, the first of which is a patch to deliver insulin. It builds on work from the Victorian College of Pharmacy and Monash University's Faculty of Engineering.

The second spin-off is Quintain NanoSystems, a diagnostic systems venture with core products in nanoparticle imaging of cardiovascular disease, nanoarrays for detection of pathogens and enzyme-based sensors. It has also developed a rapid clinical test for the detection of meningococcal infection. It is partnering RMIT, Monash, Swinburne and Melbourne universities and the Baker Heart Research Institute in these ventures.

The Government also had Victorian Department of Primary Industries research director Professor German Spangenberg on hand to launch a new technology that delays the leaf ageing process in crops by modifying cytokinin levels in plants.

Cytokinins are plant hormones that influence growth and development, inhibition of leaf senescence and mediation of stress responses.

Spangenberg said cytokinin levels are increased in plants under the control of a gene promoter. The technology to modify cytokinin has been called LXR.

"The LXR delayed senescence technology offers significant opportunities for applications in molecular farming, which in turn could result in high value products for health, bioenergy and environmental outcomes," Spangenberg said.

"We would be able to test the LXR technology combined with the production of plant-based antibodies for animal health, productivity and environmental outcomes, such as targeting approaches to mitigate methane production from livestock."