Garvan appoints BioLateral to help set up bio-IT division
Thursday, 13 June, 2002
Sydney bio-IT company BioLateral has won a three-month contract to help the Garvan Institute of Medical Research establish its $1 million Peter Wills Centre for Bioinformatics.
Plans for the centre, named in honour of the institute's past chairman, were announced last year to form part of the Garvan's new vision for research into novel treatments for diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and mental illness.
In searching for someone to run the centre, the Garvan has named BioLateral's Dr Tim Littlejohn as inaugural director.
"This is a relationship between BioLateral and the Garvan to accelerate and make bioinformatics a core strength of the institute," Littlejohn said.
"It is a fertile ground to identify unexplored bioinformatics opportunities and for the institute to develop a program in pure bioinformatics."
As part of the contract, BioLateral will construct a detailed research audit and help the Garvan to develop and implement its strategic direction and business plan for the new centre.
Littlejohn said a dedicated bioinformatics centre within a premier medical research institute was vital for the growth of the bio-IT sector in Australia.
"We're under-performing as a country in bioinformatics research and given the way biotechnology and life sciences are going, we have got to increase our activities and investment in this area," he said.
"Bioinformatics can't really exist in isolation. There has to be R&D that happens hand in hand with the life sciences sectors.
"Because of this sort of initiative, the Garvan can start to enhance its strengths in biosciences and develop a new bioinformatics platform."
He said as well as setting up a dedicated pure bioinformatics program, the Garvan would also incorporate the discipline into its existing six research areas.
In August last year, when Federal government funding of $750,000 was announced for the centre, Garvan executive director John Shine said that over the coming decade, bioinformatics would be at the cutting edge of international medical research.
"The establishment of this centre... will help ensure that Australia remains at the forefront of exciting biotechnology developments," Shine said.
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