Singapore: At the 19th annual International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC), AB SCIEX and the University of Wollongong (UOW) announced a research partnership to develop lipid analysis capabilities, including the most definitive and comprehensive identification of double bond position in lipids. This collaboration is part of AB SCIEX's new Academic Partnership Program, which helps support academic researchers to push the limits of biomedical research.

The agreement provides AB SCIEX, a global leader in life science analytical technologies, with an exclusive licence to UOW's "OzID" intellectual property, a patented technology which allows scientists to understand lipid structure faster and with better granularity than currently available alternatives.

Funded by an ARC Linkage Project grant, the research plan will see a multi-disciplinary UOW research team working with AB SCIEX to develop a standardised procedure for determining double bond position in lipids. This will include exploring lipid functions within the human body, such as energy storage, cell membrane structure and hormone signalling.

"Altered lipid metabolism has been linked to such global health concerns as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and various cancers," principal investigator of UOW's School of Health Sciences, Dr Todd Mitchell said. "Recent advances in mass spectrometry have spawned the field of lipidomics which, together with proteomics, metabolomics and genomics, focuses on the systematic study of complex interactions in biological systems," he added.

AB SCIEX is partnering with academic researchers, including up-and-coming scientists, to lower the barriers to advancements and breakthroughs in medicine and the advanced study of biology. The new wave of biological studies known as "network biology" and the -omics fields require advanced scientific techniques and powerful technologies. The Academic Partnership Program is designed to provide access to technical expertise and support in mass spectrometry and chromatography.

The agreement was facilitated with the assistance of UniQuest. Mr David Henderson, MD, UniQuest, said that the licence agreement highlighted the growing interest from international companies in the work of Australian university researchers addressing global health issues.