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ECU's pioneering human genome technology goes to work

ECU's Centre for Precision Health (CPH) is now home to a state-of-the-art genomic platform that gives scientists the capabilities to investigate and interrogate the entire human genome.

Two people in profile in white coats facing silver box-like machine, fair skinned man in foreground, dark skinned woman with blue gloves putting samples into machine's draw The GeneTitan machine at work in ECU's Centre for Precision Health.

Published:

14 Jun 2024 3 minute read
By ECU Newsroom in Research

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ECU's Centre for Precision Health (CPH) is now home to a state-of-the-art genomic platform that gives scientists the capabilities to investigate and interrogate the entire human genome.

Having become the first academic research facility in Western Australia with the Thermo Fisher Scientific GeneTitanTM, ECU now welcomes the Neurospine Foundation as the technology's first client.

The Neurospine Foundation is a multi-disciplinary specialist practice, which provides neuro spinal surgery services in WA. The Foundation is thrilled to be the first commercial user of ECU's new genomic platform technology.

"Our purpose at the Neurospine Foundation is to address back pain and neck pain as a leading cause disability worldwide and further research is needed to better understand why this happens and to continually improve surgical treatments and patient outcomes."

ECU's Professor Simon Laws, Director of the Centre for Precision Health, explains that this platform will revolutionise research capabilities, eliminating the need for third-party providers.

"This GeneTitanTM platform allows our research team to genotype samples and explore diverse sample types across our research projects, right within our laboratories at ECU," said Professor Laws.

"For our Centre, this will dramatically increase our research productivity and allow us to offer this platform to other researchers, both academic and industry-based, across WA and Australia."

"For Neurospine Foundation, this advancement will aid in furthering their research and contribute to significantly enhancing our understanding of the role genetics play in neurospinal disease and response to surgical interventions."

The new equipment developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific is worth a combined estimated $900,000, installed at the Joondalup campus.

The centrepiece of this investment is the Thermo Fisher Scientific GeneTitanTM. This is the first time this technology will be used for human health and precision health applications in WA.

Read more about the new technology

Featuring

Professor Simon Laws

Read more about Professor Simon Laws

Simon is the Director for the Centre for Precision Health, an ECU Strategic Research Centre, and also Associate Dean (Medical and Exercise Sciences) and Professor of Translational Genomics in the School of Medical and Health Sciences

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