Agresearch, university doctors team up for womb-to-tomb health

New Zealand's biggest state science company, Agresearch, will use its expertise in animal genetics to help Auckland University researchers improve human health.

Agresearch and the university's Liggins Institute yesterday signed an agreement to carry out research in developmental biochemistry and physiology, and to apply the new knowledge of growth and development to both biomedicine and farm livestock.

The agreement will open the way for integrated research on the biology of the earliest periods of life from conception, through foetal development, to adulthood.

The deal was signed at Ruakura research centre near Hamilton by Agresearch chairman Rick Christie and the Liggins Institute research director Professor Murray Mitchell.

Liggins Institute director Professor Peter Gluckman said both sets of researchers would benefit.

"We are both doing ground-breaking work in reproductive sciences -- in foetal development and life-long consequences for health and disease," he said.

"There are significant areas where we should not be duplicating our efforts -- in optimising nutrition around the time of conception, for example."

Mr Christie said the agreement was an important step toward an integrated approach to science-driven growth and innovation in New Zealand. Agresearch was committed to developing better animals for farmers, and animal genetics and reproduction was a key element.

"Like the Liggins Institute, we are well advanced in understanding genetic and environmental factors in animal growth, development and disease," he said.

The collaboration will include potential commercial applications for human health and farm animal productivity.

- NZPA