TGR wins dairy research grant

Adelaide company TGR Biosciences has received a grant from the Gardiner Foundation to look for bioactives in milk.

The company is head of a consortium, which includes major dairy group Murray Goulburn Cooperative and Food Science Australia, awarded AUD$750,000 over the next three years to develop and use high-throughput screening to rapidly identify useful fractions in milk by-products. Additional funding for the project is coming from Murray Goulburn.

TGR managing director Prof Leanna Read said the project built on the company's existing milk bioactives program, developed initially by the CRC for Tissue Growth and Repair.

The new project will use the TGR's high throughput screening assays, performed in cultured cells, to test fractions of milk by-products supplied by Murray Goulburn. Around 1000 assays could be performed a day, Read said.

Food Science Australia will look at performing simple modifications of the fractions to modify and create bioactives with interesting properties.

Initially the consortium will focus on two areas of activity -- increased bone density, with applications in treatment of osteoporosis, and muscle strength, with applications to sports medicine. Promising fractions will be further evaluated in animals.

And down the road, screens for other indications, including anti-inflammatory activity and gut health promoters would be performed. Read said the strategy would be to develop a portfolio of product specific assays that could be used to rapidly screen fractions.

According to Read, products arising from the project would be likely to have a relatively quick path to market as it was unlikely that the company would need to pursue full pharmaceutical style registration of the products, instead marketing them as nutritional products or nutraceuticals.

"It all depends on claims," Read said. "Nutritional products are easiest to get on the market as there are not many claims." But even though pharmaceutical clinical trials are not likely to be needed, some level of animal and human trials would be necessary, she said.