NZGL Supports Wide Reaching Research

NZGL Supports Wide Reaching Research

Projects designed to protect rare species such as the kakapo and the rowi kiwi, and others to help the fight against TB, diabetes and cancers with strong familial links, have all been supported by the expertise of New Zealand Genomics Limited (NZGL) over the past year.

With the support of NZGL, researchers were able to identify a virus in kiwi not previously known about and make significant progress in the push to sequence the genome of every kakapo - a vital step toward improving the species' survival prospects.

Human health research also made up a substantial part of the research (29% of all projects) the genomics infrastructure service provider was involved in, for example, helping sequence drug resistant TB to provide information that can be used to identify resistant strains more quickly.

In its 2016 annual report Chief Operating Officer Sandy Baines says since it was founded in 2010 NZGL has supported more than 1200 projects and 450 researchers through its data generation, bioinformatics services, Bio-IT computer analysis infrastructure and workforce development programmes.

Projects cover a wide range of science support - from helping design experiments through to data analysis, as well as the use of highly specialised equipment and Bio-IT platforms.

"While support for this niche market remains a focus, during 2016 NZGL moved towards building strategic alliances to enable future support for large-scale national and international cooperative initiatives. It is a natural step for NZGL to establish a national platform that can advance investment in, and use of, genomics across other government-funded sectors and private business," she says.

“NZGL is still relatively new to the sector, but within a short period of time it has built a national network of specialist people and infrastructure that enables the research community to deliver high quality outcomes for the benefit of New Zealand.”

NZGL's support services cover the entire science system from primary industry - such as agriculture and horticulture - to biosecurity, health and New Zealand's natural heritage resources.

New Zealand Genomics Ltd (NZGL) was established in 2010, and is co-funded, by the government (MBIE) and the University of Auckland, University of Otago, and Massey University, to provide DNA sequencing and analysis services to the New Zealand research community.

NZGL’s specialist expertise in genomics and bioinformatics analysis enables New Zealand scientists to achieve work of national and international importance.

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