|
Professor Yusuf Chisti with the recently installed
bioreactor facility
New bioreactor enables research advances
The recent installation of a $250,000 bioreactor facility in the
Institute of Technology and Engineering has boosted the research
capability of the University’s industrial biotechnologists and
postgraduate students.
The facility’s two cylindrical
bioreactor vessels support a biologically active environment, where
chemical processes involving organisms or biochemical substances are
conducted.
Professor Yusuf Chisti, who leads the industrial
biotechnology programme, says the new facility will enable advanced
research to produce high-value products. Research is focused on
using biocatalysts – biotech microorganisms, animal and plant cells,
enzymes, and subcellular components – to produce novel bioactive
substances, vaccines, potential therapeutics and diagnostic
antibodies.
Professor Chisti says the new facility further
enhances the University’s capacity for collaborative research. Until
its installation, many of his students have had to be located at
research facilities of his collaborators in New Zealand and
overseas.
Under his supervision, Malaysian-based PhD student
Joan Chua is researching a potential process for producing
antibodies to facilitate diagnosis of congenital adrenal
hyperplasia, a genetic disorder of the adrenal gland. She is
collaborating with the Malaysian biotech company Inno Biologics and
the Malaysian University College of Engineering and Technology.
Professor Chisti is currently collaborating with visiting
Professor Ashok Srivastava, head of the Department of Biochemical
Engineering and Biotechnology, at the prestigious Institute of
Technology, New Delhi, India. They are using the bioreactor facility
to focus on the modelling and control of biotechnology
processes.
He says the Institute contributes significantly to
New Zealand’s biotechnology sector, identified by the Government as
an area of priority for economic development. One of the fastest
growing industry sectors worldwide, biotechnology is behind products
such as biopharmaceuticals, environmentally sustainable biofuels,
bioplastics, biopesticides, replacement organs, and medical and
forensic diagnostics.
Although New Zealand has relied on
traditional biological resources for creating wealth, he believes
the biotechnology sector has the potential to generate more wealth
than almost any other sector.
Created: 16 June, 2006 |
