World-class research in molecular diagnostics at Lincoln University that could play a big part in the future security of New Zealand's borders against destructive insect pest invasions was shown to Science Minister Steve Maharey during a visit to the campus today (Friday 3 June).
Mr Maharey visited the University-based National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies and met Senior Research Officer Dr Karen Armstrong, who heads molecular diagnostics research for biosecurity at the centre.
Dr Armstrong told the Minister about her work on DNA "barcoding" for the identification of insect pest species. This is a technique, using short DNA sequences, for positively identifying the species and origin of pests where visual identification is difficult, impossible or ambiguous.
"In our work we're applying the technique to identifying insect pests and it's the first time it has been used in this quarantine type of application," said Dr Armstrong.
Internationally, over the long term, there is potential for the barcoding technique to be incorporated in a diagnostic device for use by quarantine staff at border entry points, but this is a very long way off and still at the end-user "wish list" stage, although scope exists for biological technology companies to explore the possibility.
In reply to a question about where Lincoln s research in this field ranked in world, Dr Armstrong told the Minister it was "out front" but she stressed that it was also work that relied heavily on international cooperation to share findings.
Dr Armstrong's barcoding work is a collaboration with a number of other New Zealand agencies including Landcare Research, AgResearch and the University of Auckland and this makes it consistent with the collaborative make-up of the National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies which has 11 partners.
Dr Armstrong's research is just now entering the international scientific literature and becoming a subject of world conference presentations.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Ian Collins, Journalist
Lincoln University, Canterbury
Tel: 64 3 325 2811 ext 8549
Email: Ian Collins