One of the world's best-equipped laboratories for manufacturing magnetic resonance probes has moved into commercial premises in Brisbane.
The engineering division of the University of Queensland's Centre for Magnetic Resonance (CMR) has outgrown its Gehrmann Building, St Lucia campus site and is leasing a 350 sq metre building at 30 Douglas Street, Milton.
While the Centre's academic and administrative base will remain at St Lucia, the development and production of high-precision instrumentation will be conducted off-campus in a work area three times larger than at present.
The move has resulted in the creation of three new jobs to complement the group of 10 highly-skilled engineers and technicians from Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Australia involved in the project.
CMR Operations manager (Engineering) Wolfgang Roffmann said the move was necessary because of a recently-negotiated agreement to develop novel high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance equipment.
'We had sought a location on campus, but the Milton site gives us space in the 300 square metre plus bracket, plus proximity to the University,' he said.
Last year Centre academics Professor David Doddrell and Dr Ian Brereton were awarded $2.3 million, the only grant made to Queensland under a new Federal Government program to commercialise Australia's 'smarts.'
The grant was made in the first round of the Industry Research and Development Board's R&D Start program. It will be used to develop super-sensitive chemical analysis probes for use in medicine, materials science and pharmaceutical research.
The grant was awarded to the company Spin Systems Pty Ltd, formed three years agoby Professor Doddrell and Dr Brereton to undertake and commercialise research in collaboration with German manufacturing company Bruker and UniQuest Ltd, the University of Queensland's technology transfer company. The original intention was to take advantage of the Government's syndicated R&D program which has since altered substantially.
Most of the probes developed in the new project will be manufactured in Brisbane and exported to Bruker for world distribution. Bruker has asked for exclusive rights to market the technology internationally. The German company is one of the two dominant players in the NMR market.
Spin Systems will subcontract a significant part of the work to the Milton engineering facility of the University's Centre for Magnetic Resonance. Manufacture would also give local sub-contractors the opportunity to provide probe components.
Mr Roffmann said the Milton facility had also purchased further precision equipment, including a $100,000 computer-controlled four-axis milling machine for work on the cylinder-shaped probes, and a new electronic high frequency network analyser.
'Last year we handled contracts worth more than $800,000 and we have started the year with further contracts,' he said.
'As well as supporting nuclear magnetic resonance image projects, the facility will also support University departments and external clients on projects requiring computer-controlled milling, prototyping, high frequency expertise and printed circuit board manufacture in small numbers.'
The Centre for Magnetic Resonance has successfully completed several major research projects funded by R&D syndicates. This research has led to the establishment of a probe manufacturing facility at the Centre and this has achieved overseas probes sales of $2.5 million in the past three years.
The Centre has more than $20 million worth of capital investment in state-of-the art NMR spectrometers.
Local researchers in Australian companies and institutes would have the advantage of being the first to use the new technologies, giving them an initial advantage over their international colleagues in the NMR field, and confirming Australia's place as an innovator in this field.
'One of the main applications of this technology is pharmaceutical research, and it will help place Australia at the forefront of this industry,' Professor Doddrell said.
The project would develop a suite of three novel high frequency Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) probes with the potential to reduce data acquisition time and improve research results through increased sensitivity.
The three new radio-frequency probes represent a significant breakthrough in NMR, and researchers say all three would have a marketing advantage over competitors in the field.
The Federal Government's R&D Start program assist sAustralian industry to undertake research and development projects with high commercial potential.
For further information, contact Mr Roffman, telephone 07 3369 3752, email: wolfgang@cmr.uq.edu.au
