MASSEY UNIVERSITY News

New era enzyme takes DNA detective from lab to limelight

Dr Wayne Patrick’s success in engineering a new type of DNA with the potential to innovate health care as well as industrial and agricultural waste treatment could prove lucrative, with multi-million deals under negotiation.
Being a finalist in this year’s Bayer Innovation Awards’ Science and Health category for an improved version of DNA ligase – an enzyme used in DNA biotechnology – has taken him into the local limelight.
Dr Wayne Patrick Earlier this year he was named NZBio Young Biotechnologist of the Year for his ground-breaking work, which has attracted interest from a couple of American life sciences companies currently preparing assessing patent and licensing proposals potentially worth millions of dollars.
The 33-year-old was especially chuffed to learn he is the first university-based academic to win the award, reflecting growing recognition by the biotechnology community that fundamental scientific research is important in advancing new technologies. Added to this was the pride the biochemistry senior lecturer felt in the cadre of talented undergraduate students, or “Team Ligase” as he calls them, who played their part in winning the award.
Ligase was discovered in the 1960s and his technology is used to paste together pieces of DNA. His newly discovered method could pave the way to fast-tracking personalised medicine as well as other biochemical applications by allowing scientists to sequence human genomes quickly and cheaply.
“Without ligase’s ability to paste together genes in a test tube, diabetics would still be using insulin from pigs and our human growth hormone would still be extracted from cadavers. In addition, whole new therapeutic approaches -- like monoclonal antibodies such as Herceptin and Humira – would never have been developed.”
Dr Patrick, who was awarded first-class honours in biochemistry at the University of Otago before completing a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, hopes that his NZBio award and Bayer Innovation finalist nomination signals change of attitude in New Zealand regarding the relationship between fundamental and applied research.
“The research in my lab group addresses fundamental questions about the evolution of enzyme structure and function, and we use that fundamental understanding to help us engineer biomolecules with new or improved functions,” he says.
Making a positive contribution to society by transferring the results of fundamental research – some of it funded by two Marsden research grants totalling $1.1 million in the past two years – in the form of improved biomolecules is his driving force, he says. “In the lab, we borrow tools from functional genomics, directed evolution, microbiology and enzymology to address a fundamental question in molecular evolution: Where do new enzymes and metabolic pathways come from? Grappling with this question gives us insights into problems affecting the health of humans, and the health of the New Zealand environment.”

Innovative ideas to tackle low productivity
Secondary school pupils will suggest innovative ways to tackle New Zealand’s low productivity in the ANZ-Massey Economics Challenge this month. Run simultaneously on the campuses at Albany and Manawatu, the challenge involves teams from 15 schools testing their skills. There will be a 20-question online quiz based on the year-13 curriculum before the teams make a five-minute “rocket pitch” on the subject What can we do to improve New Zealand’s low productivity? Judges at the Albany event include financial writer and commentator Mary Holm, ANZ managing director of private banking and wealth John Body, and Ministry of Economic Development economic strategy chief adviser Philip Stevens. Schools taking part at Albany, on September 3, are Kingsway School (Silverdale), Kristin School (Albany), Long Bay College, Northcote College, Orewa College and Rutherford College and Westlake Girls’ High School. Rangitoto College, Takapuna Grammar School and Westlake Boys’ High School will enter two teams.

College of Business appoints China trade specialist
The College of Business has strengthened its expertise in international business with the appointment of a specialist in Asian and emerging markets. Professor Usha Haley has joined the School of Management in Albany from Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Professor Haley is interested in researching business relationships between New Zealand and the rest of the world. She arrived in New Zealand this month after presenting a report to the United States Congress about the global effects of China’s $33 billion government subsidies to its paper industries. She says her international outlook stems from having lived and worked in a variety of countries, including Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy and Australia.
“To understand emerging markets you have to live there, to walk the streets, to buy morning coffee at the local cafes, to talk to the people who do business there,” she says.

Church support crucial for Korean migrants
Korean migrants, one of the fastest-growing ethnic populations in New Zealand, are flocking to Christian churches for support, fellowship and business networking, according to new research from Massey University. A 100-page report, Kimchi Networks: Korean Employers and Employees in Auckland, explores the experiences of Koreans. Since 1986 the Korean population has leapt from just over 400 to nearly 31,000 at the last census in 2006. Around 90 per cent of the study’s participants are regular churchgoers, compared with about 20 per cent in South Korea itself, which is predominantly Buddhist. The report was led by Dr Carina Meares, of the Albany campus, and co-authored by Professor Paul Spoonley and Robin Peace from Massey’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Elsie Ho from the University of Auckland.