Biotech Updates

LTU and Victoria to Build Bioscience Center

December 14, 2007

Victoria’s Minister for Agriculture, Joe Helper, announced the government’s plan to build a $230 million bioscience center in Melbourne. The center will be built in La Trobe University (LTU) in Bundoora. LTU is contributing $50 million for the center, which will provide farmers with access to cutting edge research to increase crop productivity.

“The centre will focus new-generation biosciences research on challenges including climate change and biosecurity preparedness,” Helper said. “The work undertaken will improve Victoria’s international competitiveness by facilitating the development of new crop varieties increasingly focused on drought tolerance and bioenergy.” More than 400 scientists from the Department of Primary Industries, La Trobe University and several private sectors will work at the center when it is completed in 2011.

Read the press release at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/2007/index_2007.html