15 February 1995 Funding Support A Boost For Lincoln Genetic Work

Significant external funding from a number of sources is a sign of strong encouragement for molecular biology work being conducted by Dr Jonathan Hickford of the Animal and Veterinary Sciences Group.

From the NZ Lottery Grants Board Dr Hickford has received S40,000 for the next step in research he has been involved with on natural footrot resistance in sheep. Initial work led to the identification of a genetic marker for natural footrot resistance and now the task is to assess the effectiveness of the marker in predicting the presence of natural footrot resistance.

Dr Hickford says the grant will help cover the assistance of an honours student and a Ph.D student who will work with him. Sandy Slow, who has just completed a first class honours degree in biochemistry at Lincoln is the Ph.D student and Andrew Young who is completing a B.Sc(Hons) in biochemistry is the other assistant.

From the Vernon Willey Trust Dr Hickford has received $5000 for a project on the variation in keratin genes and wool colour. This is a new project involving an examination of genes previously characterised as related to wool colour.

"We think that variations in these genes will help us to get a marker on low coloured wool production – high coloured yellowy wool not being a desirable trait."

The work will be collaborative with the Department of Wool Science.

From the Ministry of Research Science and Technology's Science and Technology Promotion Advisory Committee, Dr Hickford has received $5000 for a project to develop resource material in gene technology for secondary schools. There is a significant demand for such material and Dr Hickford sees a strong potential role for Lincoln University in its provision.

Related to this, Trust Bank Canter­bury has provided $500 for production costs connected with the work.

Dr Hickford acknowledges with appreciation the support of each of his funders.