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Global Expert Case Studies
Global Expert? investigates mystery plant ailment
When forestry biotechnology company ArborGen found some of the mother plants from one of its elite pine tree breeding programmes were failing, the company contacted Global Expert for help. ArborGen uses a process called somatic embryogenesis to clone tree stock of ‘super’ breeds, with high growth rates and desirable wood property traits, valued by clients in the forestry sector. The technology involves propagating tissue from immature seeds in sterile, laboratory conditions, to rapidly produce clonal stock of varieties that have performed well in trials.
These are transferred to the field and become mother plants, each producing up to 50 trees for sale to forest owners. The process from the point of selection to the point of sale is two to three years.
Kiri Armstrong, a Propagation Technologist with the company, says the mother plants produced through the cloning programme behave normally for the first 6 to 12 months in the field. However, some are then turning yellow and becoming so weak that they snap off at ground level.
"We have been building our knowledge about somatic embryogenesis over the past two to three years but the technology is still relatively new to us. With help from the Foundation? for Research, Science and Technology, we have made significant advances towards optimising the technology, but this problem remains unresolved.
"Any possible solutions we could come up with would need to be trialled and it might take two to three years before we get meaningful results."
The Foundation Business Manager working with ArborGen suggested that the company try instead to find help through Global Expert. An initial search shortlisted seven experts around the globe with the right knowledge and ArborGen has ended up contracting Dr David Thompson, based in Ireland.
"As well as working on the specific problem affecting mother plants, we plan to have Dr Thompson review our overall approach to somatic embryogenesis. He has many years experience with the process and has worked for large international companies with large-scale somatic embryogenesis programs," says Kiri.
Kiri says attending a breakfast seminar that explained the way Global Expert works was worthwhile.
"I could immediately see the relevance of the scheme to the problem faced by ArborGen. We had fruitlessly contacted all the experts we knew of. Our own avenues, other than running trials, were exhausted so Global Expert was the key to finding a solution.".
ArborGen Lab Services Manager Jude Redington says: "Interestingly, without Global Expert, we would not have thought to try Ireland for the very specialised expertise we require, because Ireland is not renowned as a significant force in global forestry. We would never have anticipated that someone of Dr Thompson‘s calibre would be located there."
Solving technical hurdles leads to new cleaning technology
Cracking a complex technical problem has opened the way for an Auckland company to develop a faster, cheaper and more environmentally friendly cleaning system for food manufacturing plants
B W Murdoch Limited designs and builds processing factories primarily for the dairy industry and had been looking for innovative technologies to meet client demand for cleaning systems that reduce chemical use and plant down times.
When the company was approached by the University of Auckland looking for a commercial partner to develop and upscale a new cleaning technology that applies a current between surfaces of heat exchanger plates, B W Murdoch Ltd. took up the opportunity.
The idea showed potential to cut plant down time for cleaning by one third and to halve the volume of chemicals needed says B W Murdoch’s Chief Executive Brett Murdoch.
Early scientific trials highlighted a technical problem which researchers were unable to solve, putting the project in jeopardy. Rather than abandoning its investment, B W Murdoch Ltd. turned to Global Expert for help.
"We needed expert knowledge regarding electrolysis technology, which was outside our research team’s field. When the Business Manager we work with at the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (which was also an investor in the research project) suggested using Global Expert, it seemed a smart way of getting through the bottleneck," says Mr Murdoch.
Together, the company and Global Expert specialists defined the problem and sought a solution provider through the service’s network of over 20,000 technology and market experts from leading universities, research organisations and corporations around the world.
Within two weeks the company had a short list of eight people with the knowledge needed and B W Murdoch Ltd. contacted each of them before selecting an expert based in Wellington. "The eventual choice was less because of location and more because of the scientist’s particular expertise although having them based in New Zealand has proved helpful."
As a result, the research project is back on track.
"The search service was excellent. We had put considerable resources and money into the research project and Global Expert provided a rescue mission at a very reasonable price. The benefits from the service far outweigh its cost."
Mr Murdoch says a medium sized company like his (20 staff and turnover of up to NZ$30 million annually) would not have been able to find the expertise on its own.
"There is a plethora of research institutes and the like dotted around the world and we wouldn’t have known where to start looking. Having a reputable service like Global Expert make the contact also gives credibility and opens doors."
Global Expert moves enriched foods technology closer to commercialisation
Technologies developed by AgResearch to enrich the selenium content of foods are a step closer to commercialisation, after a worldwide search through the Global Expert service.
Diet is the only source of selenium, an essential mineral for both animals and people, but many populations, including New Zealanders, get less of it than the World Health Organisation recommends. As a result, says AgResearch scientist Dr Scott Knowles, there is significant worldwide demand for selenium-enriched foods.
Boosting the selenium level in healthy foods like meat and milk is one way to deliver the nutrient to a variety of customers. The conventional on-farm method requires feeding dietary selenium supplements to livestock daily but AgResearch has come up with alternative approaches. These include an injectable treatment and a long-acting bolus (a small pellet lodged in the animal’s rumen where it slowly releases its active ingredients) given orally. Dr Knowles says the new technologies allow animals to naturally ‘grow’ the nutrient into their tissues, are efficient, precise, and eliminate the need for daily feed-outs, cutting farm costs.
“Our innovative technology is patented, proven in trials and ready to be commercialised but, as a research organisation, we don’t have the resources to take it to the next stage,” says Dr Knowles. “We also recognised that there could be many potential applications for our inventions that we hadn’t thought of. That’s why we went to Global Expert.”
AgResearch’s Global Expert search was two-fold – on one hand it sought late-stage development partners to advance its inventions and get them to market while also looking for potential partners and experts with novel ideas about alternative applications of the core science underpinning its discoveries.
The search connected AgResearch with an industry expert who, according to Dr Knowles, is ‘in a good area for us with connections to the kind of partners and investors we are looking for. We don’t have any deals yet but we are closer now to the international wave of activity in selenium-based functional foods’.
Dr Knowles says using Global Expert ‘helped us define what we were looking for and acted as a reality check. We were focused on licensing our technology to a manufacturer but we are now thinking more broadly about its applications and working with an overseas partner we wouldn’t have found on our own.”
Recognising the value of Global Expert, AgResearch has signed up to the Partners+ programme which provides up to 12 global searches a year along with access to the New Zealand expert network for up to five free searches.
While the most obvious application of Global Expert is connecting ‘needers with doers’, the AgResearch experience shows the versatility of the service.
“Our search covered the whole value chain, from research collaborations to technology manufacturers, to functional food companies interested in selenium-enriched foods. It was complicated but helped us think outside the square.”