Western Australia
October 22, 2008
Barley breeding and rose oil for
the Saudi perfume industry are the first collaborative projects
between the Western Australia
State Agricultural
Biotechnology Centre (SABC),
Murdoch University,
Western Australia and Taif
University, located in the west of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.
Researchers for the projects will be based at Murdoch and at
Taif’s campus where a new Biotechnology Centre is being
established, modelled on the SABC.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed last week by
Professor Jim Reynoldson, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research at
Murdoch University and Professor Fareed Felemban, Vice President
of Academic Affairs at Taif University.
Professor Reynoldson said the MOU would form the basis of a
long-term relationship, beginning with the establishment of
Taif’s Biotechnology Centre and involving a range of
disciplines, from crop and animal biotechnology to biomedical
sciences.
“The agreement is based on international recognition of the
research strengths at Murdoch University, particularly in crop
and veterinary sciences,” he said.
Professor Talal al Maliki, Dean of Medicine and Founding
Director of the Biotechnology Centre at Taif University, said he
looked forward to developing a broad and long-term relationship
with Murdoch University.
“We’ve already appointed SABC Director, Professor Mike Jones, to
the Panel of International Experts to help us establish our
Biotechnology Centre.
“The first two collaborative projects have been funded and
involve barley breeding and improvement and analysing the
production, composition and metabolism of rose oils for our
perfume industry,” Professor Maliki said.
Welcoming the agreement, Professor Jones said he was honoured to
be appointed to the Panel of International Experts and he was
confident research at Taif Biotechnology Centre would benefit
agriculture in the Taif region.
“The new Centre will very much mirror the successful SABC model,
which uses cutting edge molecular biology and biotechnology to
help underpin crop and animal production and improvement in WA,”
he said.
“As a centre of excellence in agricultural research, SABC
supplies platform technologies, state of the art equipment and
functional facilities for research and development in
agricultural biotechnology, with researchers from universities,
government and industry all using world class facilities and
sharing resources and ideas.
“Some of the challenges, such as heat, drought and salt stresses
that impact on agriculture in Australia, are the same as those
in Saudi Arabia,” Professor Jones said.
He indicated that the planned co-location of the major part of
the Department of Agriculture and Food WA to the Murdoch
University campus would also help expand the potential links
with Saudi Arabia.
Taif, known as the green and summer capital of Saudi Arabia,
which people visit to escape the summer heat elsewhere, produces
barley and wheat and fruits, including pomegranates, grapes,
limes, apricots, oranges, olives, figs, peaches, watermelons,
quinces, almonds and dates.
In addition to producing high quality fruits and vegetables,
Taif’s gardens are renowned throughout the Saudi Kingdom for
their exquisite roses, which bloom in spring and colour the
landscape.
Among them is a particularly sweet perfumed red rose that has
for centuries been used to produce a valuable essence know as
‘attar’ which can be used alone or as one of the ingredients in
other perfumes.
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A
Memorandum of Understanding was signed last week at
Murdoch University, WA, by Professor Mike Jones,
Director of the WA State Agricultural Biotechnology
Centre at Murdoch, Professor Talal al Maliki, Dean
of Medicine and Director of the Biotechnology
Centre, Taif University, Saudi Arabia, Professor Jim
Reynoldson, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research at
Murdoch and Professor Fareed Felemban, Vice
President of Academic Affairs at Taif. |
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