Close links with global science will help NZ, prof says

New Zealand can gain significant health and economic benefits from fostering closer links between researchers studying human and animal genetics, University of Otago Prof Neil Gemmell says.

Prof Gemmell is director of the Centre for Reproduction and Genomics, a joint venture involving AgResearch and the university, which is based at the AgResearch campus, at Invermay.

Genomics is the study of genes and their function, and examines molecular mechanisms and the interplay of genetic and environmental factors in disease.

The centre recently hosted its first research colloquium, which attracted researchers from New Zealand and Australia.

Prof Gemmell, of the university department of anatomy and structural biology, said the opening of the centre's new home in the Christie building, at Invermay, in December, had been a key earlier development. The inaugural research gathering was successful and another step forward. This was the first in a planned series of scientific gatherings intended to boost dialogue between scientists working on different aspects of genomics.

Participants included Prof Jenny Graves, of the Australian National University, Canberra; Prof Stephen Robertson and Prof Ian Morison, both of Otago University; and AgResearch scientists Dr Jenny Juengel and Dr Theresa Wilson.

Closer scientific collaboration could provide significant benefits, such as considering how the inheritance of complex disorders, in humans and livestock, influenced subsequent development, long-term survival and reproductive fitness, he said.