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Launch focuses on importance of biotechnology and genetic engineering research
Published by the Communications and Development Department
27 November 2002
About 150 people – University staff, members of the public, representatives from other tertiary institutions, and community leaders – gathered in the Arts Lecture Theatre block for mixing and mingling followed by a launch address by the Minister of Science Technology and Research, the Hon Pete Hodgson.
Dr Jack Heinemann (PAMS), the Institute’s director, introduced the speakers and stressed the importance of the community’s involvement in gene ecology research. He said that one of the major strengths of the Institute was its multi-disciplinary (10 University departments are involved) and multi-institutional approach and its international membership.
Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Bob Kirk outlined how the Institute clearly met the criteria for establishing new research centres, through its focus on academic excellence and by adding value, being driven by an enthusiastic and able team, providing a good learning environment, and looking to achieve, in a business sense, a robust independence within three to five years.
The Minister stressed the increasing importance of biotechnologies and biotechnology research, praised the way Dr Heinemann had pulled a team together from a wide cross –section of disciplines, and said he took great pleasure in launching the Institute.
The Institute is a multi-disciplinary organisation that will research and advise on issues relating to genetics, genetic engineering and biotechnology.
Speaking before the launch, Dr Heinemann said biotechnology and genetic engineering were “deeply contentious issues” in New Zealand. “Attempts to reach a national consensus on them have been hampered by an acute shortage of independent researchers.”
“NZIGE will assemble teams of researchers to address this shortage on a case-by-case basis. We have a participatory structure that involves interested public who work together with us and the biotechnology industry in an atmosphere of constructive evaluation of the potential benefits and harms of emerging technologies.”
Dr Heinemann said gene ecology was a new way to think about how to solve problems, and how to answer questions valued by the community. The emphasis on basic research and scholarship would ensure that the public interest came first.
“In its strictest sense, gene ecology is about how genes distribute among different creatures, how they reproduce and spread, how they come to form networks of associations that, for example, make humans human and different from bacteria, plants, and fungi. Gene ecology is the science of genes within the ecosystem of genomes.”
But in a wider sense, the Institute would be taking a societal approach to the issues. “Our approach is to research the impacts of biotechnology within the full context of the relevant social environment, as ecologists of science.”
“We combine inter-disciplinary teams of researchers from the fields of genetics, biochemistry, philosophy, social science, culture, medicine, ethics, law and economics to achieve our research objectives.”
At the University, the members of NZIGE come from ten departments: Plant and Microbial Sciences, Social Science, Forestry, Political Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, Chemistry, Maori Studies, Gender Studies, and Zoology. The Christchurch School of Medicine, Lincoln University, and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology are represented in the institute as is the Christchurch campus of Environmental Science and Research.
Nationally, members also come from the Wellington School of Medicine, the Palmerston North campus of Crop and Food Research, and the Ministry of Health. Internationally, there are members from four overseas institutions: Rockefellar University, USA; Brigham Young University, USA; University of Tromso (UT), Norway; the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology (GENØK).
Information on the Institute is available at www.nzige.canterbury.ac.nz
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