Please congratulate CHIRI’s Professor Ricardo Mancera (School of Biomedical Sciences) on his recent ARC Linkage grant success with his application titled “Advanced cryobanking for recalcitrant-seeded Australian rainforest plants”.  Ricardo was the leading chief investigator on this grant application, which involves researchers from RMIT, UWA, ANSTO, the US Department of Agriculture, University of South Dakota, Kings Park Botanic Garden and the Australian Botanic Garden.  The award is for nearly $600K over 4 years.

The project will allow this group to use a range of molecular simulation, biophysical and biochemical approaches to optimise cryopreservation methods for the conservation of endangered and commercially-valuable Australian rainforest species. Knowledge gained from this project will have applications and benefits not only for bioconservation, but also in areas such as food science and reproductive medicine.

The project will cement ongoing and productive collaborations with the Biodiversity Conservation Centre at Kings Park, and will expand collaborations with the Australian Plant Bank at the Australian Botanic Garden-Mount Annan (NSW).  It will also consolidate a new collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and the Australian Synchrotron, and will establish new collaborations with leading researchers in the USA in the field of cryopreservation.

Professor Mancera believes that this success emphasises the importance and significance of multidisciplinary collaborations and helps to strengthen Curtin’s position in the biophysical and computational fields.