Vics pledge $1.5m to wallaby genome project

Victoria's state government has pledged AUD$1.5 million funding for a wallaby genome project, which needs around $6 million to match US National Institutes of Health funding to proceed.

According to Dr Sue Forrest, director of the Australian Genome Research Facility, which is spearheading the drive to raise the funding required for the sequencing project, the grant from the Victorian government is the first of what she hopes will be several pledges from Australia's State and Federal Governments.

"At the moment there is certainly interest in other states, and we're still raising awareness of the project with the Federal Government," Forrest said.

The Victorian Premier has further extended his support by writing a letter to the Prime Minister John Howard asking him to support the project, she said.

Forrest said recent correspondence with Francis Collins, director of the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute, had indicated that Australia needed to notify the NIH by December 31 whether they would have enough funding to participate in the project.

If Australia does not come up with the funding, the NIH will only sequence the South American opossum species, and not the tammar wallaby, and Australia would lose its edge in marsupial genome research, Forrest said.

Announcing the funding, Innovation Minister John Brumby said the project was a fantastic opportunity for Australian scientists to build relationships with the NIH.