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AGRIBIO, A JOINT INITIATIVE OF THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH AGRICULTURE
VICTORIA AND LA TROBE UNIVERSITY, IS A CUTTING-EDGE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE AGRICULTURAL AGRIBIOSCIENCES SECTOR LOCATED AT
LA TROBE UNIVERSITY’S BUNDOORA CAMPUS IN VICTORIA.
POTATOES AUSTRALIA
HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF TOURING THE FACILITY, WHICH IS CONDUCTING IMPORTANT
RESEARCH FOR THE POTATO INDUSTRY. MICHELLE DE’LISLE REPORTS.
AgriBio: A state of the art facility
Bundoora prior to the facility’s
inception and linking them with
La Trobe University scientists.
The benefits of this union
between scientists have been
profound, especially in terms
of access to technology and
the ability to communicate
with other researchers, growers
and the wider agriculture
industry. Communication has
become much easier since the
building was established,
much to the delight of staff,
including Dr Constable.
“There’s a whole bunch
of resources that we share,
particularly a range of high
technology equipment that
really assists us to do the work
that we do,” Dr Constable said.
“For example, we have one
PhD student, Brittney Caruana,
who is working on potato
breeding, and she has access to
all the Genomics capacity and
T
he AgriBio facility is
impressive in many ways.
From the extensive greenhouse
to the storage rooms where
the tiniest of plant specimens
and thousands of insects are
kept, it really is a state of the
art research facility.
Potatoes Australia
paid a
visit to AgriBio and spoke to
Agriculture Victoria Principal
Research Scientist – Microbial
Pest and Diseases Dr Brendan
Rodoni and Senior Plant
Virologist Dr Fiona Constable.
AgriBio is a joint facility run
between Agriculture Victoria and
La Trobe University.
The facility houses 400
scientists and support staff,
75 per cent from Agriculture
Victoria and 25 per cent from
La Trobe University, providing
researchers with purpose-built
facilities to conduct their work in
animal and plant research.
“We do a range of activities to
support research for agricultural
industries, from high-end pre-
breeding programs, genomics
and metabolomics to some
really good science around
pest and disease management,”
Dr Rodoni said.
The Microbiology team
consists of approximately 35
staff, five PhD students and one
master’s student, who work on
microbial organisms for both
animals and plants.
AgriBio officially opened in
April 2013, amalgamating
government metropolitan
scientists who were scattered
around Melbourne at Knoxfield,
Frankston, Attwood and
next generation sequencing,
plus she gets the benefit of
working with us and the more
traditional virology techniques
that we use.
“They’re the kind of benefits
that we get: those really strong
links among groups and
expertise, which is fantastic.”
While Dr Rodoni and his team
are researchers, there is more to
AgriBio than meets the eye.
“I think a really important
part of our structure here is that
we’re researchers and we’re
encouraged to do research, but
we also provide really extensive
diagnostic and biosecurity
services to industry on a fee-for-
service basis, which started in
the 1990s,” Dr Rodoni said.
“What we find now is that
the fee-for-service is very
L-R: Dr Brendan Rodoni and Dr Fiona Constable.