Genetic Solutions beefed up by BIF grant

Agri-tech company Genetic Solutions will use a $250,000 Biotech Innovation Fund (BIF) grant to ride herd on a database holding more than one million samples of livestock DNA.

The 18-month project is designed to pinpoint genetic markers which identify desirable traits in beef cattle.

The four-year-old Brisbane company already sells diagnostic kits which test for genes linked to preferred features such as marbling in meat.

The BIF funding will allow Genetic Solutions to analyse a databank of almost one million DNA samples with relevant commercial characteristics, said company co-founder Dr Gerard Davis.

It will feed any predictive markers it finds into its R&D pipeline to increase its portfolio of diagnostic products, Davis said.

Genetic Solutions was one of eight Queensland companies among the 38 entities benefitting from the latest round of BIF funding.

On a state-by-state basis, Victorian companies led the list with 12 winners followed by NSW with 10.

Unlike many BIF grant recipients, Genetic Solutions is already well down the road to commercial success and last month opened its first US office. It has about 10 employees and expects to expand staff numbers over the next six months both in Australia and the US, Davis said.

Its products are now distributed in four countries besides Australia - the US, Canada, Japan and South Africa - and it has received overtures from European customers.

Besides its GeneStar diagnostic tests, the company has developed a genetic testing system for processing plant and feedlot operators.

That product, SureTrak, has just gained its first major US customer, PM Beef, one of the leading packing plants selling high-quality branded meat into the northeastern US.