Qld the headquarters of new facility to help detect disease

A new research facility which has received $2.25 million from the Queensland Government will focus on helping to better detect diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Regional Development and Industry Minister Desley Boyle today officially opened the National Imaging Facility (NIF) at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Magnetic Resonance.

The Centre will be the new headquarters of a national network of state-of-the-art imaging facilities under the Federal Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

“The Centre will provide leading-edge imaging instrumentation, advice and assistance in a number of key areas of research including Alzheimer’s disease, child obesity, stroke and osteo-arthritis,” Ms Boyle said.

“Alzheimer’s disease for example is estimated to have cost the Australian health system $3.2 billion in 2006, a figure which is expected to increase to $6 billion by 2011.

“Apart from the monetary costs, the increasing burden of Alzheimer’s disease on individuals, families and society as a whole is being felt all over the world.”

Ms Boyle said the new imaging equipment to be established at the Facility could assist in a breakthrough in the treatment and prevention of the disease.

“This equipment will give researchers more exact images of the body’s cellular make-up and what may trigger the disease,” she said.

Ms Boyle said the Queensland Government had funded the new National Imaging Facility as part of its overall commitment to research and development (R&D) in Queensland.

“Since 1998, the Government has invested more than $3 billion in R&D which has resulted in 36 new research institutes and more than 230 research scholarships and fellowships,” she said.

“I am proud to say that business expenditure on R&D grew 191% between 1998/99 and 2005/2006, and that one in every 100 Queensland workers are now involved in some aspect of R&D.

“Researchers like Professor Ian Frazer, who developed the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine, have become internationally renowned.”

Ms Boyle said the Queensland Government had committed an initial $24 million towards supporting National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy projects in Queensland.

“This investment has leveraged $42 million from the Federal Government alone for Queensland researchers and facilities,” she said.

Ms Boyle added $120 million was committed through the Smart State Strategy earlier this year to support science, innovation and creativity in Queensland’s universities, research institutes, industry and the broader community.

“And the Government’s Towards Q2 Tomorrow’s Queensland announced last month will also focus on challenges such as preventable diseases.”

1 October 2008

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