Adelaide finds strength in togetherness

BANKING on the proposition that there is strength in numbers, the rush to collaborative enterprise has become a firm trend in universities in search of a competitive edge.

BANKING on the proposition that there is strength in numbers, the rush to collaborative enterprise has become a firm trend in universities in search of a competitive edge.

They include the University of Adelaide, which yesterday announced its new Robinson Institute for reproductive health and research into disease. The new configuration of experts and research is calculated to attract leading international as well as local researchers and top students.

The Robinson Institute is the first of several large research institutes UA plans to establish in the next year to leverage off concentrations of expertise. The megacentre comprises the UA's Research Centre for Reproductive Health, the Centre for Stem Cell Research and the Centre for Early Origins of Health and Disease, working with Adelaide hospitals Lyell McEwin, Women's and Children's, Royal Adelaide and the Queen Elizabeth, as well as the Hanson Institute at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science.

The man responsible for steering the scientific firepower of more than 200 research staff and students is the centre's director, reproductive medicine expert Robert Norman.

Last year named by the National Health and Medical Research Council as among the 10 "best great minds in Australian research", Professor Norman describes the institute as unique in terms of the range of people it brings together, from epidemiologists, molecular biologists and geneticists to public health and patient services professionals. "To take discoveries in reproductive biology and health and translate them into clinical work or commercial applications or the animal world: I don't know another place in the world where that is done," Professor Norman said.

One of his interests is in tracking health throughout a person's life, and the range of disciplines in the institute makes it possible to draw the big picture of a person's health, from the pregnancy that produced them onwards. "I have people who know nothing about molecular biology but they can make a big contribution because they are working in the area of reproductive health, which is cross-generational: we are interested in how what happens in the peri-conceptional period and pregnancy affects the babies to be born and their health later in life." Professor Norman expects the institute to deliver new treatments for infertility, stem cell production and novel interventions in diseases that can occur in pregnancy, and in cancer.

As well as promoting the commercialisation of treatments, the institute will provide high-level training in reproductive and regenerative medicine. It will also capitalise on UA's strong reputation in stem cell research in areas including isolating adult and cord blood stem cells, clinical applications and improved patient care.

"You have groups around the world concentrating on stem cell biology as the medicine of regeneration, and then you have separate groups concentrating on stem cells and embryology: the opportunity we have is to take those people and get them working together."