Bio Blast Off

Funding of almost $20 million for three major projects led by the University were announced by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie at the BIO2004 event in San Francisco.

Each of the initiatives, part of the latest round of Smart State Research Facilities Funding, will have an important impact on the Queensland economy, as well as on the research and teaching activities of the University. Mr Beattie announced:

> $9.5 million for the Centre for Advanced Animal Science (CAAS), researching livestock health and production, at UQ Gatton.

> $8.1 million for the Queensland Preclinical Drug Development Facility.

> $2.2 million to assist the establishment of the Queensland Hypersonic Testing Facility.

The CAAS will be established to further research into nutrition, diseases and vaccines, biotechnology, animal welfare and food quality and safety. CAAS will be a partnership between UQ and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

The partners will contribute another $9 million to create an $18.5 million centre aimed at building a critical mass of research in animal science. Professor Roger Swift, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Veterinary Science, said the CAAS represented a sound investment in the future of Queensland's multi-billion dollar animal and allied industries.

"An outstanding feature of the Centre will be the collaboration among leading researchers from universities and government research institutions in an environment promoting excellence and innovation," he said.

"The model of multi-institutional collaboration will harness human capital and build critical mass in areas of strategic importance to Queensland that will attract large scale national and international investment and maximise the effi cient use of high-quality modern facilities."

"Close collaboration with industry will ensure a rapid path to commercialisation of products and the delivery of economic and social benefits."

Professor Swift said animal science research in South-East Queensland was presently carried out at multiple facilities that were independently owned and managed by universities and State and Federal research institutions, a situation that was no longer economically defensible.

"The majority of the existing facilities are in urban and peri-urban locations where there is intense pressure from residential development," Professor Swift said.

"The facilities have been in existence for some time and many no longer comply with current standards for research. "

"Research in the Centre will be in the key areas of health and disease, nutrition and growth, adaptation and animal welfare, new products, and food quality and safety."

The University also stands to be at the forefront of drug development with the announcement of funding for Australia's first integrated preclinical testing facility, the Queensland Preclinical Drug Development Facility.

The Facility will be led by UQ researchers Professor Istvan Toth, Professor Ron Dickinson, Professor Rod Minchin and Professor Maree Smith.

It will be developed in partnership with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, clinical trials company Q-Pharm and is the first facility in the country to focus on the four core areas of preclinical drug development in an integrated way to take new drugs from the discovery stage to readiness for human clinical trials.

The Facility will be the first in Australia with a "one-stop shop" for preclinical assessment of new drugs. Professor Smith, directordesignate of the Facility, said the bulk of preclinical development work now went overseas but the new facility would reduce the cost and delay in assessing new drugs.

"This will bring a very high valueadded industry to Queensland with many spin-offs for employment and the economy in this State," she said.

"Sending drugs off-shore for preclinical testing adds two to three times more cost to this stage of development, as well as making it harder to retain contact with the drugs' progress. "By having this Facility we will be able to provide rapid feedback to people in the drug discovery industry and help them produce better products."

The Facility will take a fourpronged approach to looking at new drugs by assessing efficacy (if they work); toxicology (whether they might be harmful); developability (how to improve physical and chemical characteristics so they are absorbed by the body); and ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination).

The new Queensland Hypersonic Testing Facility will be part of UQ's Centre for Hypersonics, which is at the forefront of research into scramjet technology that will revolutionise high-speed travel and space exploration.

Professor Richard Morgan, Director of the Centre, said thefunding was a fantastic investment in cutting-edge science.

"This will give us a great increase in the level of our facilities for better and more productive research," he said. "And it is with this research that we are creating a niche market for ourselves in international circles."

The Facility will combine the world's most advanced hypersonic and super-orbital ground testing facilities with advanced computational modelling abilities and hypersonic free-flight testing facilities.

Professor Morgan said the funds would also enable the fastest computer cluster in the southern hemisphere to be assembled.

The SUN Microsystems cluster will be operated jointly by UQ's Centre for Computational Molecular Science and the Centrefor Hypersonics and will greatly help develop and commercialise future space technology concepts such as scramjet propulsion and aerocapture.

The project also includes upgrading and extending the University's high-speed wind tunnels; scramjet flight-test infrastructure; and establishing an Australian rocket and heatshield fabricating business in collaboration with the Australian Space Research Institute.

Funding will also go to the construction of a high-speed wind tunnel at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ).

The Facility will benefit from substantial contributions from UQ and partners NQEA Ltd, WBM Pty Ltd and SUN Microsystems Australia and USQ.

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