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Biomatters rides human genome wave

Auckland company Biomatters has developed on the back of exponential growth in bioinformatics, or biology that uses computer science, since sequencing of the human genome was completed in 2001.

As scientists delved into the genome, the resulting research generated vast amounts of information to be analysed and interpreted in the drive for scientific and medical discoveries. One of Biomatters’ founders, Dr Alexei Drummond, an Auckland evolutionary biologist, hit on the idea of creating software applications that would help molecular biologists organise, analyse and mine the data.

Its first product was Cheesecake, software that allows scientists to manage aspects from animal husbandry to ethics reporting and experimental design for in vivo laboratory research involving animal testing.

Key benefits of Cheesecake are that it cuts the length of trials and the number of lab animals needed and effectively manages environmental risk by ensuring all organisms can be instantly tracked and traced.

In 2006, Biomatters began targeting sales of Cheesecake in Australia and as well as looking for collaborative opportunities across the Tasman to further develop its software.

The company was awarded NZ$10,000 from the Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership Fund, through the People and Skills Development category, to relocate its Product Development Manager, Jonathan Cowperthwaite, to Australia for six months.

Mr Cowperthwaite established a close relationship with the Howard Florey Institute (HFI) in Melbourne, Australia’s largest brain research institute, installed Cheesecake and worked closely with HFI scientists to evaluate its use and effectiveness.

The collaboration guided product development and, over Mr Cowperthwaite’s six months in Australia, the Cheesecake product was enhanced to include a mobile workflow tool with PDA capability and scoping of new functionality relating to genotyping.

Biomatters gained valuable feedback from scientists using the product in real-life applications and HFI was also established as the company’s first major reference site in Australia for Cheesecake.

In addition, Jonathan Cowperthwaite made contact with other research institutes that could benefit from installing Cheesecake.

Biomatters CEO Candace Toner says the ANZBPF grant was crucial in giving a small, start-up company resources to gain a thorough understanding of a key, potential market.

She says HFI continues to use Cheesecake and, earlier this year, a new development cycle of the product was completed to include barcode scanning and enhanced PDA functionality. Biomatters has also employed a developer who is completing her PhD at the University Of Auckland, to further improve the application. Once that work is completed, Ms Toner says Biomatters will be engaging with other research institutes in Australia with a view to selling the product more widely in that market.

“Being able to send Jonathan Cowperthwaite to Australia and establish the relationship with HFI has positioned us well to further expand sales of Cheesecake once the latest product re-development is completed. While relatively small, the grant from the ANZBPF was really important – at the time, we were investing all available resources into research and development so support for people and skills development was a real bonus.”

Originally published on the NZTE website in March 2008.