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Media Release

July 28 2008

UniSA turns maths minds onto plant genome research

UniSA maths and statistics experts to take on plant genomics researchA partnership between UniSA’s School of Mathematics and Statistics and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) will build leading research capacity in phenomics and bioinformatics in Australia and support a high-tech plant research facility, launched today at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus.

The partnership will establish a new Phonemics and Bioinformatics Research Centre (PBRC) within the School at UniSA, providing the vital data analysis required to develop improved crops in a world facing increasing food shortages.

UniSA Mathematics and Statistics Head of School, Professor Stan Miklavcic, says the new centre will bring the power of applied mathematics and statistics to complex genome research on essential world crops like wheat and barley.

“The new Australian Plant Phenomics Facility at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus has state of the art data collection capacity,” Prof Miklavcic says.

“Our role through the new PBRC will be to make sense of that data. We will be working with plant scientists and molecular biologists from ACPFG to help map plant genomes and better understand how crops can cope in our challenging climate.”

Prof Miklavcic said in a world increasingly impacted by climate change and in a country facing more consistent drought conditions, the research will be vital for food security.

UniSA is in the process of recruiting two senior researchers to support the foundation of the new centre, which it expects will be a national hub of research and development in bioinformatics and phenomics.

Chief Executive of ACPFG, Professor Peter Langridge, says the new partnership building on UniSA’s strengths in applied mathematics and statistics will have far-reaching benefits for South Australia.

“This partnership demonstrates the increasing importance of technology in agriculture. It may not occur to students in maths and statistics that their work could directly benefit Australian farmers, but bioinformatics is a booming career path with real-world applications.”
 

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