Diagnostic technologies – complementing new advances with old skills
Dr Karen Armstrong, Senior Research Officer in the Bio-Protection Research Centre (National Centre of Research Excellence) at Lincoln University, Canterbury, spoke at the Biosecurity Summit on new advances in diagnostic technologies.
Dr Armstrong said the first, critical step in biosecurity was preventing the entry and establishment of potentially harmful pests and diseases. Increasing global trade and travel, combined with climate change, contributed to a growing range of organisms, particularly in temperate areas.
The well-documented decline in taxonomic expertise, along with the need to develop ever-more rapid and sensitive diagnostic methods, gave impetus to developing technologies that were generic, more sensitive, specific, reproducible, reliable, fast and cost effective – and able to complement traditional skills and methods.
The biosecurity diagnostic challenges were to quickly and efficiently establish:
- What is it?
- What is its biology – is it a risk?
- Is it alive or dead – is the risk mitigated?
- Has it been here long – can it be contained or eradicated?
- Where did it come from?
Dr Armstrong said that state-of-the-art examples included:
- remote microscope systems at the border;
- “pocket diagnostic” pregnancy-type pest identification tests for the field and potentially border;
- DNA-based technology, including bar coding to identify exotic insects;
- polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification; and
- highly sensitive electrochemical DNA biosensors with molecular diagnostic capabilities.
She said much work was going into developing micro and nano technology, which was expected to translate into further advances through miniaturisation and increased sensitivity for diagnostics.
Biosecurity stood to gain considerably in the long term from research and development in other fields, but was also dependent on the development of global reference collections and ways to deal with a plethora of databases.
- Dr Armstrong has worked with MAF since 1994 developing diagnostic tools for border-intercepted insects. She currently leads the Emerging Technologies for Border Diagnostics project in the Bio-Protection Research Centre and the Diagnostic Toolbox project within the Better Border Biosecurity Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) Outcome-Based Investment (OBI). She is also involved with several international pest diagnostic initiatives, including two projects with the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Plant Biosecurity, the United States-led Tephritid Fruit Fly barcode initiative (TBI) and the European Union’s Quarantine Barcode of Life (QBOL) programme.
Page last updated: 14 January 2009