Agricultural centre selects Thermo technology

Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced it will be outfitting a new research centre in Victoria, Australia. AgriBio, the Centre for AgriBioscience will purchase AU$2.5 million of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry (MS) technology.

According to the company the centre’s activities will support Victoria's AU$11.8 billion agricultural sector through cutting-edge research to improve productivity, profitability and sustainability, as well as addressing other challenges such as climate change and drought.

“We are making this investment at the new world class centre to enhance and align our technology capabilities with our strategic agricultural initiatives,” said Professor German Spangenberg, executive director, Biosciences Research Division, Department of Primary Industries. “Our investment will help ensure that AgriBio is a central hub of biotechnology-driven research to improve the profitability and sustainability of the Victorian and Australian agricultural industries.”

The new systems are expected to further both small molecule metabolomic and proteomic research. It is reported that investigations of milk and rumen metabolomes of dairy cows will improve cow management for enhanced productivity and important environmental and health outcomes. Proteomics’ applications will include understanding quality traits in key animal and plant species. Disease resistance, production efficiency and stress tolerance will be defined and then proteomic phenotypes for these traits will be measured across populations.

For more information of the groups visit www.brcproject.com.au and www.thermo.com