Bioplatforms Australia, which manages investment funding through the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), together with the South Australian Government and the AWRI, will collectively invest $11.1m ($7.4m USD) for metabolomics and associated activities at the AWRI up to 2023.
The facility was founded in 2008 at Adelaide’s Waite Campus – the largest concentration of agricultural research and teaching expertise in the Southern Hemisphere - and provides metabolomic analysis and expertise for both local and national researchers and industries. The funding will allow it to expand with core equipment, skilled staff and capacity to support projects.
Dr Dan Johnson, managing director, AWRI, said: “The investment will allow all major capital equipment in the metabolomics facility to be renewed and, excitingly, will add new capacity in the form of a NMR instrument for analysis of liquid samples.
“This will be the first such instrument on the Waite Campus, providing benefit to a range of colocated research organisations. The investment will also facilitate new research projects with industry and academic partners.”
Metabolomics refers to the comprehensive analysis of the complete set of all low molecular weight metabolites, the metabolome, that exist within a biological system such as grape juice, yeast or wine.
The metabolome consists of hundreds to thousands of molecules with widely different physical and chemical properties. Metabolomics provide scientists with a ‘global’ perspective; to see the bigger picture of what happens during biological processes such as fermentation.
