5/10/00
A new Lotteries-funded facility will ensure that Western Australian medical research is amongst the most advanced anywhere in the world.
Racing and Gaming Minister Norman Moore today officially opened the UWA’s Lotteries Laser Microdissection Facility in the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre.
The facility, including a new Scanning Electron Microscope for the university, was funded by Lotteries Commission grants of $573,295.
Mr Moore said it was significant that of $129 million in Lotteries funding made available to the community last year, $70 million went to public hospitals and the health service.
He said the new facility represented a major advance in medical research technology in WA.
Laser microdissection technology is a combination of microscopic, laser and robotic technology that has not been available to researchers in WA before now.
Laser Microdissection, incorporating ‘optical tweezers’, makes it possible for researchers to conduct molecular analysis of single cells within living tissue.
The Lotteries Laser Microdissection Facility will be used by researchers in a wide range of fields such as in vitro fertilisation, cloning, cancer research, animal development, botany, agriculture, engineering and biopolymer research.
Mr Moore said the new Scanning Electron Microscope was a core tool for biological and medical researchers.
It would be used for research into conditions such as osteoporosis, arthritis, gastric diseases, asthma, cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, asbestos-related diseases and infectious diseases.
The microscope’s state-of-the-art digital imaging system will enable UWA researchers to rapidly transmit images via the Internet to overseas or interstate collaborators.
Dr Hugh Dawkins, Academic Project Manager in the UWA’s Department of Surgery, said the Lotteries Laser Microdissection Facility and Scanning Electron Microscope would be used by researchers across the State as part of the increasing collaboration within the medical research community.
“This equipment will enable WA researchers to remain at the leading edge of scientific and medical research,” Dr Dawkins said.
Media contact: Hartley Joynt, Minister’s office 9321 1444
