DNA one hundred times faster at Massey

A new piece of technology that can provide extremely fast and detailed information on DNA has been unveiled today at the Allan Wilson Centre in Massey University by Research, Science and Technology Minister Steve Maharey.

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A new piece of technology that can provide extremely fast and detailed information on DNA has been unveiled today at the Allan Wilson Centre in Massey University, by Research, Science and Technology Minister Steve Maharey.

Steve Maharey says the new $700,000 'Solexa Genome Analyzer System' will enable Massey scientists to analyse DNA a hundred times faster and cheaper than they could before.

"This machine is the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and will enable the Allan Wilson Centre to take a leading role in showing the world how such new technology can be applied to study populations, individuals and diseases.

"The new Solexa will advance our knowledge of the causes of diseases like Hepatitis B and the genetic susceptibility to cancers, such as stomach cancer.  It will also help us find new tests for diseases.

"It can be used to study the genetic diversity of our native plants and animals, or to identify the microbes that cause diseases on grape vines, which would be a huge benefit to the New Zealand wine industry.

"Another major advantage of the Solexa is that scientists don't need to clone genes to analyse them, and they don't transfer genetic material between species.  This will help address concerns about this kind of research."

Steve Maharey says researchers from both universities and CRIs around the country will be able to pool their expertise and equipment with the new 'Solexa Genome Analyzer System'.

"Being the first such machine in this part of the world, there are also opportunities to tap into the Australian research community, as well as to other Pacific countries like Fiji."

The Allan Wilson Centre is one of two prestigious Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) at Massey University.  The second is the Riddet Centre, which became a CoRE earlier this year and focuses on food and biologicals.