AgResearch’s strengthening capabilities in a flourishing field of research will have very positive long-term spin-offs for New Zealand’s agricultural industry.

AgResearch has joined up with the School of Biological Science at Victoria University of Wellington, to set up a Proteomics Facility.

Proteomics is the study of all the proteins in a cell, tissue or organism.  Proteins are a completely integral part of the mechanisms controlling function in cells - they can be described as the cornerstone building blocks of a given genome.

There are many thousands of proteins at work, in animal, plant and microbial cells, but while understanding the role they play is extremely complex, it also provides science with enormous opportunities.  Knowledge on cell development and the constitutive proteins in cells, means understanding how genes function – what they do, why they’re there, and if and how they can be used to our advantage in agriculture and in human health.    Such information will be invaluable in:

• commercialising ground-breaking scientific innovation, and

• developing scientific collaboration for future projects.

AgResearch science leader Dr Julian Lee believes this joint venture provides considerable advantages. 

“AgResearch was keen to increase its capability in this growing area of research, because of the long-term opportunities there for us to exploit.  Linking up with Victoria, and with its internationally recognised proteomics expert Dr Bill Jordan, is a practical and positive way of achieving that for AgResearch, while strengthening Victoria’s position as New Zealand’s leading proteomics research provider.  We’re pleased to be working alongside someone of Dr Jordan’s expertise and enthusiasm.  This is also a fantastic opportunity to work with Dr Jordan and Victoria University in developing student post graduate research programmes, with graduates skilled in proteomics having the opportunity to go on and take up employment with AgResearch for the benefit of New Zealand’s  biological industries.” he said.

“Together, we’ve invested more than $600,000 over two years from AgResearch in people, sophisticated technology and resources in the million dollar joint facility to embark on the challenge of making sense of just some of the significant  proteins found in mammals, plants and microbes.”

Three AgResearch researchers have recently been appointed to the new facility, led by Dr Judy Bond.  The scientists, and two PhD students, will initially focus on building proteomic capabilities within AgResearch, and providing a valuable protein identification service to Agresearch science groups. They will also support research projects in dairy biotechnology, rumen microbiology and endophyte-ryegrass interactions. The group is also supporting work in two Research Consortia – Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium and the Meat Biologics Consortium.

It’s hoped this research will produce the information needed to understand the function of specific proteins in cattle production and health, in fibre degradation by microbes from the gut of animals, and in pasture plants, in turn coming up with opportunities to use the proteins to improve production and the quality of animal products, and to provide new and novel products.

It’s also expected the research areas and the number of people in the team will grow as the research areas expand across further AgResearch projects.