The $24 million La Trobe-led Australian Research Council (ARC) Industry Transformation Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture (ARC MedAg Hub) combines academic and industry research and expertise to drive better cultivation, breeding and manufacturing practises to support Australia’s medicinal agriculture industry and ultimately improve health outcomes for patients.
The Hub will boost employment opportunities by contributing to an industry-ready workforce through education and research training across the TAFE and university sectors.
La Trobe Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar said the Hub, located in La Trobe’s Research and Innovation Precinct, was a key component of the University’s $5 billion City of the Future plan.
“The ARC MedAg Hub will bring together La Trobe’s leading agri-medicine researchers with industry partners to drive innovation, new product development and employment in Australia’s fast-growing medicinal agriculture sector” Professor Dewar said.
Hub Director, Professor Tony Bacic said initial research was focused on medicinal cannabis due to the considerable anecdotal evidence and growing community perceptions around its efficacy for a broad range of diseases and for pain control.
“Our work is addressing legitimate concerns of health practitioners seeking evidence-based research into the quality, purity and efficacy of cannabis products,” Professor Bacic said.
“We need to better understand which cannabis extract components are active in reducing clinical symptoms of disease. We also need to understand factors leading to better production outcomes for key active components of medicinal cannabis.”
Professor Bacic said researchers from La Trobe and the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI) are working to identify components of cannabis oil displaying anti-cancer activity in breast cancer cell cultures.
“This research will improve our understanding of active components or component mixtures and form the basis for further pre-clinical or clinical trials. Future research will examine extracts from other medicinal plants including Australian species,” Professor Bacic said.
Hub Research Director, Professor Jim Whelan said another project aimed to develop hand-held devices able to accurately monitor plant health and growth.
“We’re working with industry partners Cann Group and Photon Systems Instruments to study how active components of medicinal cannabis plants respond to various environmental conditions. We are developing phenotyping and hyperspectral imaging hardware and software to identify how plants respond to a range of nutrient and other environmental conditions, with the ultimate aim of creating a hand-held detector for producers,” Professor Whelan said.
The ARC MedAg Hub was established in July 2019 at La Trobe’s Melbourne campus with funding from the ARC, La Trobe and industry partners.
Research Partners:
- La Trobe University – lead
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI)
- The University of Melbourne
Industry Partners:
- Cann Group Limited (ASX: CAN)
- Bioplatforms Australia Ltd (BPA)
- HEXIMA LTD
- Photon Systems Instruments (PSI)
- Palo Alto Research Center Inc.
- SensaData Pty Ltd
- Under the Tree (UTT) Biopharmaceuticals Pty Ltd
Pictured (L-R): La Trobe Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar, Minister for Education Dan Tehan MP, ARC MedAg Hub Professor Tony Bacic.
