Laboratory News & BioScience December 2016

In association with The NZ Microbiological Society Inc. VOL. 22 No. 1 JUNE 2012 ISSN 1172-7101 

Issue 116 | December 2016 

THE MAGAZINE FOR LABORATORY PROFESSIONALS 

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Royal Society of New Zealand 

honours Dr Bruce Campbell 

Congratulations to Dr Bruce 

Campbell, chief operating officer 

of Plant & Food Research, on being 

awarded the prestigious Thomson 

Medal for 2016. 

The Thomson Medal is awarded by the 

Royal Society of New Zealand to recognise 

outstanding contributions to science 

and technology. It was presented to Dr Campbell 

for his outstanding leadership in both the 

agricultural and horticultural sciences over 35 

years. 

The medal selection committee noted: “His 

leadership has had a positive impact on the 

New Zealand economy, including innovations 

in forages, wine, kiwifruit and avocado sectors, 

and he has fostered new science talent and 

linked science closely with business and the 

wider community.” 

They particularly noted his scientific leadership 

during the response to the kiwifruit 

bacterial disease Psa when it was discovered 

in New Zealand in 2010, which saw more than 

100 Plant & Food Research scientists mobilised 

to support Zespri and the kiwifruit industry in 

understanding and managing the devastating 

disease. 

As chief operating officer of Plant & Food Research, 

Dr Campbell leads a team of more than 

600 scientists across New Zealand, delivering 

research and innovation to support the sustainable 

growth of the plant and marine-based 

food sectors. 

He has worked highly successfully to build 

relationships and research programmes based 

on shared understanding of how science can 

partner with industry to achieve targets for economic, 

environmental and social sustainability, 

with a close alignment between science and 

business strategies. This has extended recently 

to building much closer links with Māori food 

businesses and the Māori economy. 

In his role, he acts as director for a number 

of industry organisations and science partnerships, 

including Forage Innovations Limited, 

the Bio-Protection Research Centre of Excellence 

and the Horticulture New Zealand Vegetable 

Research & Innovation Board. He was 

made a Fellow of the NZ Institute of Agricultural 

& Horticultural Science in 2014. 

Dr Campbell is a strong advocate for encouraging 

young people to build careers in the horticultural 

and wider food industries. He championed 

the development of the Plant & Food 

Research Summer Studentship Programme 

- which to date has seen more than 250 young 

scientists spend three months undertaking a 

research project at the Institute to gain insights 

into real life science and business activities – 

and the creation of scholarships that support 

young Māori and Pacific Island students in furthering 

their science education and careers. 

He was also instrumental in establishing the 

Joint Graduate School in Plant and Food Science 

with the University of Auckland, the first 

collaboration of its kind in New Zealand, and 

the Joint Graduate School of Horticulture and 

Food Enterprise with Massey University. 

On receiving the Thomson Medal, Dr Campbell 

said: “I am thrilled and humbled to receive 

this award. It is a credit to the many talented 

people I have been privileged to work with over 

Continued to page 3 

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[ 2 ]


Reaching for the moon with NASA 

A Victoria University of Wellington 

PhD graduand is investigating what 

new information can be gained 

about moonquakes during his 

postdoctoral fellowship at NASA. 

Jesse-Lee Dimech, who is completing his 

PhD in Geophysics at Victoria, says seismic 

energy is useful for looking inside 

planets. 

“Using the energy from earthquakes, or 

in this case, moonquakes, we can gain insight 

into the composition and structure of 

the Moon.” 

Between 1969 and 1972, five of the Apollo 

missions successfully placed seismometers 

at landing sites on the Moon, which 

recorded ground motion and radioed this 

information back to Earth. Contained in this 

dataset are more than 13,000 moonquakes 

that were recorded up until 1977. 

“I’m working on categorising and detecting 

moonquakes using the Apollo seismic 

dataset, as well as some extra datasets not 

previously used for this purpose. This particular 

work is being done in collaboration 

with Dr Renee Weber, my advisor at NASA, 

and Dr Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun, a scientist 

at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for 

Solar System Research. 

“It's a great opportunity to work 

with some of the world's top planetary 

seismologists. By applying new seismic 

analysis techniques we may be able to learn 

new information about the Moon—even 

from such an old dataset,” says Mr Dimech. 

One of those new techniques is shear 

wave splitting analysis, a key research interest 

of Professor Martha Savage from Victoria’s 

School of Geography, Environment and 

Earth Sciences, who has collaborated with 

Mr Dimech to undertake the first shear wave 

splitting analysis off Earth. 

“When seismic waves travel through layers 

of rock they split in much the same way 

light does when it hits a crystal. By measuring 

how much splitting occurs, we can infer 

physical properties from the rock, such as 

stress and fracturing, the presence of fluids, 

and rock laminations,” says Mr Dimech. 

Another technique, developed by Victoria’s 

Associate Professors Richard Arnold and 

John Townend, is a statistical method of examining 

the geometry of the faults responsible 

for earthquakes. 

“I applied this technique in my PhD to 

Jesse-Lee Dimech 

earthquakes we found in the upper mantle—the 

layer beneath the crust—which 

was able to tell us what type of faults produced 

them. We will be using a modified 

version of this code to understand the type 

of faulting associated with ‘deep’ moonquakes, 

which are situated about halfway 

between the Moon’s surface and its core. 

“I’m continuing to work with Professor 

Savage and Associate Professor Arnold 

while I’m at NASA. New Zealand has some 

great scientific talent and I’m excited about 

maintaining these relationships and building 

new ones.” 

Some of the techniques Mr Dimech uses 

may also be useful in helping NASA learn 

about the composition of Mars when they 

land a seismometer there in two years’ time 

as part of the InSight mission to Mars. 

Australian-born Mr Dimech says he has 

loved space since he was a child, and a postdoctoral 

role at NASA is the culmination of a 

lifelong ambition. 

“I was actually pen pals with Australia’s 

first astronaut Andrew Thomas. We exchanged 

several letters when I was a kid, 

and I even talked to him on the phone once, 

as well as fellow astronaut John Glenn who 

just happened to be in the office at the time. 

They definitely inspired me. I was also the 

youngest member of an astronomy club. 

I’ve always been fascinated by NASA.” 

For more information contact Samantha 

Fisher, Communications Adviser, on 04-463 

5105 or samantha.fisher@vuw.ac.nz. 


Royal Society of New Zealand honours Dr Bruce Campbell 

From page 1 

the years. 

“I have focused my career on partnering 

science with users of new knowledge to enhance 

food, the environment and people. It is 

great to see this connectivity of science now 

PRODUCT NEWS 

gathering momentum to enrich our society 

and wellbeing.” 

Before his current role, Dr Campbell was 

general manager Science Operations at HortResearch, 

acting as interim CEO during the 

merger of HortResearch and Crop & Food Research 

in 2008 that formed Plant & Food Research. 

He began his career, after completing 

his PhD in the UK, as a scientist at DSIR Grasslands, 

then as Scientist and Science Leader at 

AgResearch. 

Dr Campbell received the Thomson Medal 

at the Royal Society Honours Dinner, held at 

the Transitional Cathedral in Christchurch. 

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[ 3 ]



Government commits another half-million 

dollars into SKA computing and software 

Government commits another halfmillion 

dollars into SKA computing 

and software 

[ 4 ] 

At the SKA site in South Africa, some of the SKA team in 2015, with Nicolas Erdody, Andrew Ensor (AUT) at left and Willem van 

Straten (AUT -sixth from the left), together with collaborators from Australia, Canada, South Africa and UK. 

Representatives of the AUT/Industry collaboration working on the SDP Computer System design, Andrew Ensor (Director HPC 

Research Lab AUT), TN Chan (Managing Director and System Architect Compucon NZ), Piers Harding (Senior Consultant Catalyst 

IT), Peter Baillie (Project Manager NZ SKA Alliance), Don Christie (Co-founder and Co-owner Catalyst IT), Nicolás Erdödy (Founder 

and CEO Open Parallel). 

The Square Kilometre Array will involve 

thousands of dishes across Australia 

and South Africa that will act as a giant 

radio telescope. 

The telescope, which will start partial 

operations in 2021 and have a lifetime of 50 

years, will help to create data images allowing 

scientists to see back to the early stages 

of the universe. https://www.youtube.com/ 

watch?v=pOxohO7W4sk 

New Zealand is one of 10 countries with a 

key role in the project- with AUT and its High 

Performance Computing Research Lab leading 

the NZ SKA Alliance’s effort. 

The Ministry for Business, Innovation and 

Employment has contributed an additional 

488-thousand-dollars towards the research. 

That is on top of the previously invested 

$1.7M. That funding is targeting a collaboration 

between university researchers and NZ 

industry partners working on the computing 

aspects of the project – AUT, Catalyst IT, 

Compucon NZ, and Open Parallel. 

Together, they are helping to design the 

Science Data Processor for the SKA. It’s the 

Big Data supercomputer system that will 

have the processing power of 100 million 

computers. That’s because the telescope will 

be producing data equivalent to 100 times 

the global internet traffic. 

The collaboration is working on cuttingedge 

computer nodes, algorithms and software 

to ensure the supercomputer will keep 

up with the unprecedented data rates. 

The world doesn’t have computers capable 

of processing this extraordinary level 

of data yet, so AUT High Performance Computing 

Lab is using AUT’s radio telescopes 

at Warkworth for modelling the SKA’s demands. 

Dr Andrew Ensor is the head of AUT’s HPC 

Lab and the director of the NZ SKA Alliance. 

“The SKA represents numerous firsts for 

New Zealand, being the biggest Big Data 

project in the world, the largest Science project 

NZ has ever lead substantial parts of, one 

of the largest NZ involvements in an international 

ICT collaboration, and what is becoming 

the longest term NZ academic-industry 

project collaboration.” 

Pro Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation 

at AUT, Professor John Raine, says it’s 

great to see the government continuing to 

invest in the project. 

“NZ’s work on the SKA project is creating 

lasting research relationships in New Zealand 

and abroad and creating jobs and intellectual 

property that will outlive the SKA.” 

A director at Catalyst IT, Don Christie, is 

delighted Catalyst IT is now able to get more 

involved 

"Catalyst IT is now able to get more involved 

in the project, bringing valuable 

OpenStack cloud expertise as Australasia’s 

largest open source software company." 

Compucon’s Managing Director TN Chan 

says they’ve been working on the SKA since 

2013. 

“Compucon New Zealand has always 

been taking a role in computing node architecture 

investigations. We will stay in this 

area and at the same time develop an industry 

level ecosystem in New Zealand which 

did not exist before. “ 

Nicolás Erdödy the CEO of Open Parallel, 

which is based in Oamaru, says they’ve had 

up to a dozen people working on the SKA 

computing work for the past six years. 

“This new funding will allow Open Parallel 

to employ new staff in Otago, increase its 

global collaboration already in place with 

top universities in New Zealand and overseas, 

boost our partnership with multinationals 

towards the SKA construction tender 

of 2018 and continue our R&D on applications 

of our work in the SKA compute platforms 

for NZ primary industries.”


Victoria research flourishes in Marsden funding 

Victoria University of Wellington 

researchers have received 26 

prestigious Marsden Fund grants 

worth $14.3 million, the largest 

number ever received by the 

University and more than 22 percent 

of the total funding awarded in 2016. 

The Marsden Fund supports research 

excellence, allowing New Zealand’s 

most talented researchers to explore 

ideas at the forefront of their disciplines. 

The Fund is administered by the Royal Society 

of New Zealand on behalf of the Government. 

Victoria University researchers received 

22.2 percent of total Marsden grants, securing 

26 out of the 117 research projects 

funded nationwide. 

Victoria projects awarded funding 

range from research into nanoparticles, 

glaciers and election turnouts to gender, 

Māori traditional calendars and the cosmic 

web. 

Of the 26 successful Victoria researchers, 

16 are in the Faculty of Science, and six 

of those are in the School of Chemical and 

Physical Sciences. 

Four grants were awarded to researchers 

in the humanities, three to engineering 

staff, two for education research, and one 

to staff in the Faculty of Law. 

The funding consists of 17 Standard 

grants for established researchers and 

nine Fast-Start grants for researchers early 

in their careers. 

Of particular note is the $565,000 

awarded to Professor Rod Downey for a 

project titled ‘The mathematics of computation’. 

This is Professor Downey’s ninth 

Marsden grant as a Principal Investigator, 

putting him among an elite group of researchers 

to consistently win funding over 

many years. 

Vice-Provost (Research) Professor Kate 

McGrath says the results are excellent and 

confirm the strength of research capability 

at Victoria. 

“These successful projects reflect the 

world-leading and potentially gamechanging 

research being carried out at 

Victoria. 

“A particular highlight is Victoria’s growing 

reputation as a leader in the physical 

and chemical sciences, with staff in this 

area awarded Marsden funding of just under 

$4.5 million. In addition, the two grants 

awarded to researchers from the Faculty of 

Education is notable and an outstanding 

achievement. 

“As a global-civic capital city university, 

we want to lead thinking on major societal, 

economic and environmental issues. 

This success gives us assurance that our 

research is of the highest calibre.” 

Victoria University recipients of Marsden 

Grants (with funds to be distributed 

over three years) are: 

Standard grants: 

• Dr Shen Vun Chong (Robinson Research 

Institute): Nanostructuring in iron-based 

wires for ultra-high current density, 

$720,000 

• Dr Joel Colon-Rios (Law): Constituent 

power and the law, $420,000 

• Professor Carmen Dalli (Education): War 

and peace in the nursery: How do young 

children negotiate conflict to establish 

belonging and wellbeing in a multi-ethnic 

New Zealand early childhood centre, 

$735,000 

• Professor Simon Davy (Biological Sciences): 

From parasitism to mutualism: Symbiosis 

interaction states and the adaptability 

of reef corals to climate change, 

$830,000 

• Professor Rod Downey (Mathematics and 

Statistics): The mathematics of computation, 

$565,000 

• Dr Pauline Harris (Chemical and Physical 

Sciences): Ngā Takahuringā ō te ao: The 

Continued on page 6 


Instrumentation & Measurement for the food industry 

Inline Process 

Liquid Analysis: 

Water: 

Wasterwater: 

Concentration, clarity, colour, moisture content 

FAC, ClO 2 

, Ozone, pH, TDS, NO 3 

, Turbidity 

pH, DO, NO 3 

, NH 4 

, PO , Suspended Solids, 

4 

Flow & Level, Data Transmission 

Gas Analysis: Measurement & Alarm - example O 2 

& CO 2 

Offline Laboratory/QA 

+64 9 525 1875 | info@belltechnology.co.nz | belltechnology.co.nz 

pH & Temperature, RH, Datalogging / QA – Fixed Systems (warehousing 

& coolstores) hard-wired or RF options, Transportation & In-situ Food 

Pasteurisation Process Validation, NIR Analysers, Refractometers & Density, 

Viscosity & Autotitrators, plus General Laboratory Hardware. 

[ 5 ]



Nelson Marlborough Health follows suit 

with RACS Respect Agreement 

A Memorandum of Understanding 

(MoU) aimed at building respect 

and improving patient safety in 

surgery has been signed between 

the Royal Australasian College 

of Surgeons (RACS) and Nelson 

Marlborough Health (NMH). 

The MoU, a collaboration formed 

under the RACS 2015 Action Plan: 

Building Respect, Improving Patient 

Safety, commits both organisations to 

a shared vision to provide high quality 

training, education and experience in the 

practice of surgery and is the second to 

be signed in New Zealand, following an 

agreement struck with the University of 

Otago last month. 

RACS and NMH will work together to 

ensure that surgical supervisors have the 

necessary skills and attributes and are 

supported to provide training, assessment, 

feedback and support to Trainees 

and International Medical Graduates free 

of discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment. 

RACS vice-president Professor Spencer 

Beasley said the College strongly supported 

NMH’s efforts. 

“RACS and NMH strongly support the 

rights of all healthcare professionals to 

a safe training and work environment 

where they can realise their full potential,” 

he said. 

"We know that if we can improve the 

culture of medicine, and surgery in particular, 

we can expect better patient outcomes. 

This is a powerful reason why we 

wish to work together with this initiative." 

Acting NMH CEO Peter Bramley says 

that the agreement will strengthen Nelson 

Marlborough Health’s initiatives to 

improve patient safety and its overall 

workplace culture. 

“Under the agreement, we will further 

develop programs and processes to address 

inappropriate staff behaviour across 

our hospitals, as well as aligning existing 

policies and processes to deal with these 

concerns,” Mr Bramley said. 

Specific initiatives include: 

• Sharing relevant information and resources 

regarding the education and 

training available with the respective 

institutions. 

• Exploring models for less than full-time 

training for surgical trainees and to promote 

these to allow greater flexibility 

and fulfilment of family commitments . 

Victoria research flourishes in Marsden funding 

From page 5 

effect of climate change on traditional 

Māori calendars, $720,000 

• Dr Justin Hodgkiss (Chemical and Physical 

Sciences): The origin of UV photoprotection 

in the brown skin pigment eumelanin, 

$870,000 

• Associate Professor Melanie Johnston- 

Hollitt (Chemical and Physical Sciences): 

Mapping the cosmic web with the Murchison 

Widefield Array, $870,000 

• Professor Estate Khmaladze (Mathematics 

and Statistics): On the theory of distribution-free 

tests for statistical hypothesis 

and unitary operators in functional spaces, 

$585,000 

• Professor Bastiaan Kleijn (Engineering and 

Computer Science): Distributed processing 

with information privacy in sensor 

networks, $790,000 

• Professor Eric Le Ru (Chemical and Physical 

Sciences): Probing the optical absorption 

of molecules adsorbed on metallic 

nanoparticles, $840,000 

• Associate Professor Ivy Liu (Mathematics 

and Statistics): Dimension reduction for 

mixed type multivariate data, $550,000 

• Dr Peter Ritchie (Biological Sciences): Testing 

for fishing-induced evolution using 

DNA from ancient and modern snapper, 

$830,000 

• Dr Sarah Ross (English, Film, Theatre and 

Media Studies): ‘Woe is me': Women and 

complaint in the English Renaissance, 

[ 6 ] 

$450,000 

• Associate Professor Jeff Sissons (Social 

and Cultural Studies): The mysterious disappearance 

of tuuaahu, $390,000 

• Dr Mattie Timmer (Chemical and Physical 

Sciences): The missing link: A traceless 

linking strategy for the conjugation of 

complex carbohydrates to proteins and 

peptides, $870,000 

• Professor Jack Vowles (History, Philosophy, 

Political Science and International Relations): 

A 'Big Data' approach to the problem 

of electoral turnout, $635,000 

Fast-Start grants: 

• Dr Shaun Eaves (Antarctic Research Centre): 

Establishing natural baselines of glacier 

variability in a warm world, $300,000 

• Dr Lorena Gibson (Social and Cultural 

Studies): East side orchestras: Music, poverty, 

and social change, 

$300,000 

• Dr Alia Martin (Psychology): 

Children's understanding 

of shared 

knowledge and its 

importance for effective 

communication, 

$300,000 

• Dr Yi Mei (Engineering 

and Computer Science): 

Automatic design of 

heuristics for dynamic 

arc routing problem with 

genetic programming, 

$300,000 

• Dr Polly Stupples (Geography, Environment 

and Earth Sciences): Stretching the 

celluloid ceiling: Women's creative agency 

in the emergent Pacific film industry, 

$300,000 

• Dr Tirta Susilo (Psychology): Fractionating 

face blindness: Creating a taxonomy for 

developmental prosopagnosia, $300,000 

• Dr Bronwyn Wood (Education): Citizenship 

in Aotearoa New Zealand: Young people, 

belonging and changing times, $300,000 

• Dr Bing Xue (Engineering and Computer 

Science): Large-scale evolutionary feature 

selection for classification, $300,000 

• Dr Cathie Zheng (Chemical and Physical 

Sciences): Finding the needle by removing 

the haystack: Modeling diffuse foregrounds 

to detect the epoch of reionization, 

$300,000. 

laboratorynews 

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Unique NZ synthetic chemistry 

scientist wins award 

The importance of fundamental 

science to expand new discoveries. 

Imagine a time before electronics, synthetic 

clothing, tyres, contact lenses or 

plastic products such as money, packaging 

and toys existed. This wide variety of 

man-made products has revolutionised our 

lives. But, what other materials are scientists 

capable of creating? 

That’s what Dr Erin Leitao, a chemical scientist 

from the University of Auckland won her 

award for, and her prize money will go into accelerating 

these yet to be seen materials. 

Dr Leitao is the 2016 New Zealand Fellow 

of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science 

programme*, receiving a $25,000 grant to assist 

her independent research at the University 

of Auckland. 

For 18 years, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For 

Women in Science programme has supported 

women researchers around the world with 

the objective of recognising and rewarding 

their accomplishments whilst encouraging 

young women to enter the profession. 

“We are delighted to continue our support 

for a programme that recognises and 

rewards women for scientific excellence and 

for their contribution to society,” says Martin 

Smith Executive General Manager, L’Oréal 

New Zealand. 

“Research and innovation is at the heart 

of our business, so we are immensely proud 

to provide the opportunity to ensure that 

women are fairly represented at all levels in 

science. 

“Erin’s research is fundamental and time 

consuming so it is essential that we play 

our role to support new research solutions 

to help solve the world’s most complex 

questions. 

“It gives us great pleasure to present her 

with the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science 

New Zealand Fellowship for 2016.” 

Dr Leitao is the only scientist in New Zealand 

working towards creating new polymeric 

materials with main-group elements 

comprising the backbone. The vast majority 

of synthetic chemistry is targeted at making 

molecules and materials containing predominantly 

carbon atoms. 

Dr Leitao wants to create new polymers 

by making use of main-group (inorganic) elements 

such as silicon, phosphorus, nitrogen, 

and oxygen. These alternatives to carbon are 

not only in high abundance, they give the 

potential to produce materials with unexplored 

properties and reactivity. 

Dr Leitao is investigating ways of creating 

new polymer building blocks and new ways 

in which to connect them. 

Dr Leitao says the materials resulting 

from the creation of synthetic polymers with 

main-group elements will give rise to new 

applications and a better understanding of 

the behaviour of the various main-group 

molecules and polymers. 

“It’s an under-explored area of science so 

there is potential to make significant discoveries. 

And that has the exciting prospect of 

one day putting New Zealand on the global 

map as a key player in main-group polymer 

chemistry, especially when it comes to commercializing 

new materials as there is a lot of 

support for that here,” she says. 

“The L’Oréal FWIS fellowship will help kickstart 

my independent research career as well 

as provide financial support which will make 

balancing a family and a career more effective. 

“Funding for basic science is crucial as we 

need it for new discoveries that enable new 

applications which haven't even been considered 

yet. 

“It is vital work and without it we could 

miss out on knowledge that will expand our 

understanding of science,” Dr Leitao says. 

“Currently we are working towards creating 

stable silicon based polymers which can conduct 

electricity that may be found in applications 

such as sensors or in electronic devices.” 

Canadian-born, Dr Leitao is a researcher 

and lecturer at the University of Auckland 

working in the School of Chemical Sciences 

on catalysis in inorganic and main group 

chemistry. 

Award winner: Dr Erin Leitao 


Guild congratulates Kiwi winners of Australia’s 

National Student Business Plan Competition 

The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand 

congratulated the team from the University 

of Auckland which won the 

Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s National Student 

Business Plan Competition. 

The winning team of Akhila Puthigae, 

Surbhi Patel, Philip Cabasag and Sean Turner 

won with their fictitious NaturEd Pharmacy. 

NaturEd Pharmacy is based in Rotorua, and 

features a multilingual EduCare programme 

which revolutionises health literacy and patient 

education. 

The team was declared the competition 

winners at the recent 2016 Pharmacy Connect 

conference in Sydney. The two runners- 

up were Eye Scream for Eye Screens from 

the University of Technology Sydney, and 

One Life Pharmacy from the University of 

Sydney. 

The three finalists, from a total of 16 entries, 

successfully progressed through the 

business plan, quarter-final and semi-final 

rounds. 

They had to complete financial quizzes, 

write short answer essays about business 

finance and operations, and pitch their 

business ideas to the judges before being 

selected to pitch to the Pharmacy Connect 

conference delegates. 

Following the live pitches, each team 

met with the judging panel to answer some 

post-pitch questions about their business. 

The National Student Business Plan 

Competition is an initiative of the Pharmacy 

Guild of Australia designed to promote creative 

entrepreneurship among pharmacy 

students and encourage the development 

of viable, innovative, pharmacist-owned 

community pharmacies. 

The competition is open to all pharmacy 

schools across Australia and New Zealand 

and provides $15,000 in cash prizes to the 

finalists, a portion of which goes directly to 

the participating schools of pharmacy who 

produce the top three teams each year. 

[ 7 ]



Conductivity measurement is the 

easiest means of determining that 

the water purification system has 

produced water devoid of dissolved salts. 

Conductivity is a measure of water’s capability 

to pass electrical flow. Traditionally 

the measurement was as Resistivity, the water’s 

opposition to the flow of a current over 

distance. Both properties directly related 

to the concentration of ions in the water. 

These conductive ions typically come from 

dissolved salts and inorganic materials such 

as alkalis, Chlorides, Sulfides and Carbonate 

compounds. 

Conductivity is usually measured in micro- 

or milliSiemens per centimeter (uS/cm 

or mS/cm). 

Formally it is defined as the reciprocal of 

Resistivity, with Pure water having a resistance 

of 18.2 Mohm/cm. By nature resistivity 

and conductivity are reciprocals (1/measurement). 

The units name Mho and Ohm 

are the same letters, in reverse. 

A competent laboratory’s pure water QA 

program must include having a conductivity 

meter on hand. However the laboratory 

is faced with two problems. 

Firstly, most conductivity meters are 

PRODUCT NEWS 

Verifying the Quality of Laboratory 

Deionised / Distilled Water 

made to work over a wide 

range, from tap water up to 

brackish waters. With such a 

wide range this will stretch the 

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This is because without having 

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The second problem the laboratory 

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traceable calibration performed 

against a low value reference of 5uS/ 

cm or less. 

Bell Technology now provides a 

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through our calibration laboratory. 

For more information contact us via email 

info@belltechnology.co.nz 

Wi-Fi Education Solutions from Leica 

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[ 8 ] 

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In association with the NZ Microbiological Society Inc. 

Vol. 25 No. 6 • December 2016 

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LN_BioSci_1216_FC_MD_Quickdrop_trsfr.indd 1 

29/11/2016 1:49:41 p.m.


VOL. 25 NO. 6 | DECEMBER 2016 

New: 4 liter 

capacity! 

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Centrifuge 5920 R 

The new Centrifuge 5920 R delivers 

extraordinary high capacity in a very 

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Its state-of-the-art refrigeration system 

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[ 2 ] 

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Watch video!


Small and extremely resilient 

– the secrets of black fungi 

Highly resistant to stresses, black 

fungi are real champions among 

microorganisms. With the support 

of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a 

research team in Vienna discovered 

that the fungi owe their qualities 

to hitherto unknown proteins and 

special processes at cellular level. 

They are true survival artists, not minding 

the cold any more than they do 

heat. 

Whether their environment offers little or 

plentiful oxygen, is wet, salty, dry or has contaminated 

soils – the black fungi keep their 

cool and feel at home in even the most inhospitable 

of living conditions. 

How do they do that? 

"To our great surprise, the fungi show 

almost no stress response at all. This means 

something in their structure makes them 

inherently resistant to stress," relates Katja 

Sterflinger. 

With the support of the Austrian Science 

Fund FWF, the microbiologist used a climate 

chamber to simulate different stress situations 

as the fungi encounter them in climatically 

extreme regions such as the Arctic or 

deserts. She first observed how the cells of 

the fungi, or, more precisely, its proteins, react 

to cold, heat, ozone or aridity. 

UNIQUE "PROTEIN TOOL" 

Katja Sterflinger heads the "Extremophile 

Center" at the Vienna Institute of BioTechnology 

(VIBT), University of Natural Resources 

and Life Science. 

The climate chambers, built specifically 

for the Institute, and the use of cutting-edge 

sequencing technologies have made it possible 

for the first time to identify the proteins 

of black fungi. 

"This was very difficult, because they are 

not like or even comparable to anything else 

we have seen so far," notes Sterflinger. 

The researchers have now learned that 

the "microcolonial fungi", as the technical 

term goes, have a unique protein system that 

enables them to grow both at 0° C or at 45° C. 

The microbes even survived a simulated 

trip to Mars. All it takes them to achieve that 

is some minor molecular adjustment. 

"Depending on whether it is hot or cold, 

the fungi will change a little. But that is just 

fine-tuning,” said Sterflinger. 

This is actually a very smart move on 

the part of the fungi, because any dramatic 

changes would consume energy. 

The fungi have no need for that and there- 

fore remain active even in low-nutrient environments 

such as glaciers or stone. 

UNDERSTANDING CELLULAR PROCESSES 

In a next step, the team headed by Sterflinger 

matched the protein data yield with 

the transcriptome data, i.e. they analysed the 

sequence of cellular processes. 

The researchers discovered that the cellular 

secret seems to be less related to the 

proteins than to the non-coding RNA (ribonucleic 

acid). 

These molecules are active in the cell 

without being translated into proteins. 

While their biological functions had been 

largely undetermined until recently, it is now 

known that they have an important role in 

regulating a variety of cellular processes. 

After all, only two percent of the genetic 

material that is actively read is translated into 

proteins. 

THE EXCEPTIONAL TALENT OF 

"EXOPHIALA DERMATITIDIS" 

Among the hundreds of fungal strains the 

Viennese researchers have investigated to 

date, "Exophiala dermatitidis" has turned out 

to be a particularly versatile extremophile. 

This microfungus, also known as 'black 

yeast', is found across all temperature ranges 

from cold to warm and withstands simply everything. 

"It grows on glaciers just as in saunas, and, 

unfortunately, also in our dishwashers. And it 

has the disagreeable property of being a human 

pathogen", explains Katja Sterflinger. 

This is the negative side of the fungus. 

On the plus side, it has an optimal talent 

for degrading hydrocarbons, i.e. toxins. 

This latter quality induced the microbiologists 

from the "Extremophile Center" 

to launch a second FWF-funded project in 

which they screened more than 200 black 

yeasts in their search for a biological "cleaner" 

for exhaust fumes and contaminated soils. 

Apart from "Exophiala" they found only 

one more fungus with the ability to degrade 

environmental toxins. 

Unfortunately, this second variety is also 

closely related to human pathogen strains, 

which meant that plans for using them as 

biofilters have been shelved for the time being. 

MEDICAL FOCUS 

Instead, the experts from Vienna's University 

of Natural Resources and Life Science 

now focus on medical issues and have set out 

to investigate the molecules of the pathogenic 

"Exophiala dermatitidis" more closely, 

since the fungus not only provokes infections 

in people with weak immune systems, 

but also increasingly in individuals of average 

good health, as Sterflinger notes, underlining 

the relevance of her research for medical science. 

According to the microbiologist, the extreme 

stress tolerance of the fungus is probably 

related to its pathogenicity. 

"This is an area we still don't know enough 

about. It is our goal to find out more about 

the virulence factors of the fungus." 

Personal details 

Katja Sterflinger is the head of the Extremophile 

Center (http://www.extremophilecenter.at) 

at the Vienna Institute of BioTechnology 

(VIBT), University of Natural Resources 

and Life Science. The microbiologist specialises 

in the study of fungi and black yeasts 

and as such is a sought-after expert when it 

comes, for instance, to the preservation of 

monuments. 

Scientific Contact: 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Katja Sterflinger 

Institute of Biotechnology 

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences 

Vienna Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna T 

+43 / 1 / 47654-79862 E katja.sterflinger@ 

boku.ac.at W http://www.boku.ac.at/en/ 

Publications 

Blasi, B; Poyntner, C; Rudavsky, T; Prenafeta- 

Boldú, FX; Hoog, S; Tafer, H; Sterflinger, K: 

Pathogenic Yet Environmentally Friendly? 

Black Fungal Candidates for Bioremediation 

of Pollutants, in: Geomicrobiology 

Journal 2016; 33(3-4):308-317, doi: 

10.1080/01490451.2015.1052118 http:// 

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/014 

90451.2015.1052118?scroll=top&needAcces 

s=true 

Blasi, B; Tafer, H; Tesei, D; Sterflinger, K: From 

Glacier to Sauna: RNA-Seq of the Human 

Pathogen Black Fungus Exophiala dermatitidis 

under Varying Temperature Conditions 

Exhibits Common and Novel Fungal Response, 

in: PLoS One. 2015; 10(6):e0127103, 

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127103 

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/ 

article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127103 

Tesei, D; Marzban, G; Marchetti-Deschmann, 

M; Tafer, H; Arcalis, E; Sterflinger, K: Proteome 

of tolerance fine-tuning in the human pathogen 

black yeast Exophiala dermatitidis, in: 

Journal of Proteomics. 2015; 128:39-57, doi: 

10.1016/j.jprot.2015.07.007 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ 

pubmed/26189359 

Zakharova, K; Tesei, D; Marzban, G; Dijksterhuis, 

J; Wyatt, T; Sterflinger, K: Microcolonial 

fungi on rocks: a life in constant drought?, in: 

Mycopathologia. 2013; 175(5-6):537-547, doi: 

10.1007/s11046-012-9592-1 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ 

pubmed/23073825 

[ 3 ] 

VOL. 25 NO. 6 | DECEMBER 2016



Bioelectronic therapy effective for patients 

with medically unexplained symptoms 

An observational study presented 

at the at the International Society 

for Pharmacoeconomics and 

Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 19th 

Annual European Congress has 

found that non-invasive vagus 

nerve stimulation is an effective 

treatment for patients with 

medically unexplained symptoms. 

The study also showed that nVNS treatment 

significantly reduced the total 

number of GP appointments and hospital 

referrals required by these patients. A 

second poster presented by the York Health 

Economics Consortium (YHEC), supported by 

a grant from the Yorkshire and Humber Academic 

Health Science Network, calculated 

the study was cost-effective. 

The research has found that up to 66 

percent of patients who suffer from at least 

three of the following conditions, primary 

[ 4 ] 

headache, gastric motility disorders, anxiety, 

depression, and widespread chronic pain, 

experienced an improvement in their overall 

health following a medication review and 

after they started nVNS treatment with electroCore’s 

gammaCore device. Sixty percent 

of adult primary headache patients have one 

or more other medically unexplained symptoms 

[1] . 

Approximately 25 percent of all GP consultations, 

and 25 percent of all hospital referrals, 

are generated by 10 percent of the 

18 to 70-year-old UK patient population who 

suffer from multiple medically unexplained 

symptoms. As a result of the study there was 

a 19 percent reduction in the number of GP 

appointments attended by the patients, and 

a 23 percent reduction in their number of 

hospital referrals. 

This study comes in the light of recently 

published NICE guidelines describing the 

need to optimise the care received by patients 

with multimorbidity. 

NICE chairman Professor David Haslam 

Themis Bioscience successfully closes 

10 million euro financing round 

The fresh capital will be used to complete 

a phase 2 clinical trial of its lead 

product, a vaccine candidate against 

Chikungunya fever. 

Further products that will benefit include 

the company's Zika virus vaccine 

whose development just recently received 

significant financial support by Innovate 

UK. 

Dr Erich Tauber, CEO and co-founder of 

Themis, on the successful completion of 

the company's second financing round: 

"We are delighted about the continuous 

trust of our existing investors and of Austria's 

leading Venture Fund aws Gruenderfonds. 

“This trust and our recent excellent 

product development and technology 

progress have also attracted new investors 

and we are very grateful for their support." 

The now successfully closed investment 

round included the existing investors Ventech, 

Omnes Capital and Wellington Partners 

with the latter leading the round. New 

investors were undisclosed business angels 

with a focus on vaccine development and 

the aws Gruenderfonds. 

Dr Regina Hodits, general partner at the 

lead investor Wellington Partners, comments 

on their investment decision: "Themis' 

focus on prophylactic vaccines for 

emerging tropical infectious diseases, its 

patented platform technology and the recent 

very encouraging results from a phase 

1 clinical trial of its lead candidate make the 

company a very attractive investment opportunity. 

“We want the company's vaccine portfolio 

to develop at a fast pace and are willing 

and determined to support Themis on its 

growth path." 

At the heart of Themis' success lies the 

company's proprietary Themaxyn® platform. 

It uses a standard measles virus 

vaccine as a vector, developed at Institut 

Pasteur in Paris, and constitutes the basis 

of the company's pipeline. As measles vaccines 

have been successfully used in hundreds 

of millions of people globally, the 

Themaxyn® platform offers an excellent 

safety profile and clear advantages in terms 

of a validated, low-cost production process. 

Recent phase 1 clinical trial results of the 

company's lead product, a Chikungunya 

vaccine, proved the suitability of the vector 

for other indications and the observed 

immune responses encouraged the management 

to move this vaccine candidate 

rapidly to a phase 2 trial, which has been 

initiated earlier this year. 

Continued on page 5 

commented: “Actually now many patients 

have multiple problems. People don’t die but 

live with multiple diseases. Now we need to 

build care around these people - and the vital 

increasing role of the generalist comes along 

with this.” [2] 

The study was carried out in seven primary 

care practices across the UK by expert 

pharmacists from Interface Clinical Services. 

A total of 233 patients, who used the gammaCore 

nVNS device alongside their existing 

treatments, were assessed after periods of 

eight weeks and 40 weeks using the EQ-5D- 

5L quality of life index. Patients reported less 

pain and discomfort, and improved ability to 

perform their normal daily activities, as well 

as lower levels of anxiety and depression. 

Patients were asked to self-administer 

three nVNS doses per day, with each dose 

equalling two minutes of electrical stimulation 

to the vagus nerve. Interface pharmacists 

provided training to patients on how 

to use the gammaCore device. The patients 

found the therapy very easy to use at home, 

and reported no serious side effects. 

Dr. James Ward, GP and GPwSI in Headache 

at Oaklands Health Centre, West Yorkshire, 

said: “We introduced this service into 

practice in 2014 and as a result have improved 

the way we manage patients with complex 

medically unexplained symptom multimorbidity. 

Whilst the patients are benefiting from 

having a better quality of life, we as GPs benefit 

from knowing that patients feel empowered 

to better manage their health at home.” 

About electroCore 

ElectroCore LLC, the New Jersey based 

bioelectric pharma company, is focused on 

developing non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation 

therapies (the gammaCore device) 

for the treatment of multiple conditions in 

neurology, psychiatry, gastroenterology, and 

respiratory fields. The company’s initial target 

is the treatment of primary headaches 

(migraine and cluster headache), and the 

associated chronic co-morbidities of gastric 

motility, psychiatric, sleep, and pain disorders 

that drive disproportionately large direct and 

indirect costs within the healthcare system 

and society. 

GammaCore is available in the UK. In Germany 

gammaCore is distributed by Desitin. 

In the USA electroCore is awaiting FDA approval. 

[1] http://www.ecorelibrary.com/landing/ 

pdf/GNS_001558_Poster_26Sept2016_FI- 

NAL.pdf 

[2] http://www.gponline.com/nhs-redesigncare-around-multimorbidity-nice-experts-warn/article/1411511


Themis Bioscience successfully 

closes 10 million euro financing round 

From page 4 

This progress not only pleased existing 

investors but also raised the interest of new 

ones such as the aws Gruenderfonds. Ralf 

Kunzmann, CEO of aws Gruenderfonds, 

comments: "We‘re happy to support Erich 

Tauber and his team in the further development 

of the promising prophylactic vaccines 

for emerging tropical infectious diseases 

and to be part of the strong investor 

syndicate. We are looking forward to take 

the next steps together with Themis." 

Dr Gerd Zettlmeissl, chairman of the supervisory 

board of Themis, comments on 

the future company plans: "We are grateful 

for the trust of our existing and new investors 

and I am pleased to welcome Ralf Kunzmann 

of the aws Gruenderfonds as a new 

member of our supervisory board. 

“The new capital will primarily be dedicated 

to finalise the phase 2 clinical trial of 

our Chikungunya vaccine and to prepare 

for respective phase 3 trials.” Furthermore, 

Themis will use the additional investment 

to continue the exploitation of the knowhow 

it acquired with the Chikungunya vaccine's 

development for further prophylactic 

vaccines. These include a vaccine against 

the Zika virus whose advance into the clinical 

trial phase by Themis was recently supported 

by the United Kingdom's innovation 

agency, Innovate UK, with 1 Mio. GBP. 

About Themis (November 2016): 

Themis Bioscience GmbH develops prophylactic 

vaccines from the preclinical to 

the early clinical phase, focusing on emerging 

tropical infectious diseases, with initial 

vaccine candidates currently being developed 

against Chikungunya and Zika. The 

company's highly innovative and fully patent-protected 

measles virus vaccine vector 

technology platform, licensed from the 

internationally respected Institut Pasteur in 

Paris, forms the basis for all current vaccine 

candidates of the Vienna-based company. 

www.themisbio.com 

About the vaccine technology 

(November 2016): 

The scientific basis for Themis' measles 

vector Themaxyn® platform has been developed 

at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and 

is licensed to Themis. It relies on the use 

of the standard measles vaccine as a vaccination 

vector. Genes coding for selected 

antigens from the chikungunya virus have 

been inserted into the genome of this 

well-established vaccine. The measles-chikungunya 

vaccine delivers the chikungunya 

antigens directly to macrophages and 

dendritic cells – the most potent and effective 

antigen-presenting cells, thereby triggering 

a specific immune response to chikungunya 

virus. This results in a powerful, 

antigen-focused immune response, which 

is most likely to confer long-term immunity 

as does the measles vaccine. 

About aws Gruenderfonds 

(November 2016): 

aws Gruenderfonds is Austrian's leading 

venture capital fund with around EUR 

70 M EUR under management. The parent 

company is the Austrian Wirtschaftsservice 

Gesellschaft mbH (aws). The fund invests 

in Austrian startups with high growth potential 

in their early growth or expansion 

stage. aws Gründerfonds is a long term 

partner who takes hands-on approach and 

actively assembles a syndicate of international 

co-investors out of their international 

network. Currently the fund has invested 

in 20 startups, further investments in the 

life science segment include e.g. Miracor 

Medical Systems and Panoptes. 


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[ 5 ]



Ginolis launches revolutionary lateral flow 

device assembly solution 

Ginolis Ltd, a leading provider of high 

precision liquid handling and intelligent 

desktop automation for MedTech 

industries, recently announced the launch of 

the revolutionary LFDA-3, the intelligent lateral 

flow device assembly solution. 

The world leading lateral flow device assembly 

solution provides manufacturers flexible 

production capacity within a desktop 

footprint. 

The LFDA-3 is built on Ginolis´modular 

Xanthia robotic platform. 

The modular design provides speed, accuracy 

and precision, as well as flexibility for 

the future. The solution is easily adaptable and 

PRODUCT NEWS 

Thermo Scientific Smart-vue 

Wireless Sample Monitoring Solution 

Thermo Scientific Smart-Vue solutions 

protect precious samples by monitoring 

key laboratory parameters including 

temperature, CO2 concentration, humidity 

and differential pressure. 

The Smart-Vue solution can be installed on 

most laboratory equipment, including ultralow 

temperature freezers, laboratory refrigerators, 

CO2 incubators and in clean rooms. 

This intuitive, wireless monitoring solution is 

can assemble different rapid tests with minimal 

product specific adjustments. Machine 

vision guidance throughout the entire system 

ensures a consistent high quality assembled 

device. 

“The LFDA revolutionizes the rapid test 

manufacturing market. One system can assemble 

multiple rapid test devices with little 

or no changeover time,” states Jorma Venäläinen, 

VP of sales and marketing at Ginolis Ltd. 

“Vision guided component placement, 

strip cutting and assembly throughout the 

process ensures fast production times with 

high quality results.” 

The revolutionary new desktop solution 

designed for controlled laboratory environments 

such as pharmaceutical research and 

production, IVF clinics, tissue banking and 

diagnostic laboratories, where sample protection 

and monitoring is a priority. To facilitate 

regulatory compliance with various protocols, 

Smart-Vue provides full audit-trail traceability. 

By continuously monitoring ambient conditions, 

the Smart-Vue wireless monitoring 

solution protects sensitive laboratory samples 

comes equipped with machine vision guidance, 

real time quality control, bulk feeders, 

proprietary Ginger software and a host of additional 

features. 

The LFDA-3 is available with single card, 

card magazine or reel infeed. 

The desktop solution has an extremely 

quick changeover time and production capabilities 

up to 30 units/minute. 

The LFDA-3 allows you to realise all the 

benefits of automating your manufacturing 

process in a footprint that is less than three 

square meters. 

The company is showcasing the LFDA-3 for 

the first time at Medica trade fair in Düsseldorf, 

Germany on November 14 – 17. Visit Ginolis 

Ltd at Hall 1 stand B15. 

with immediate remote alarm notifications. 

It creates a permanent record of all readings, 

alarms and acknowledgements with the responder’s 

personal identification. It is accessible 

via the Internet anytime, anywhere. 

Smart-Vue can be easily installed, set up 

and maintained. The multilingual, user-installed 

software automatically identifies and 

pre-configures module protocols for easeof-use. 

The highly efficient and cost-effective 

Smart-Vue solution is fully scalable and flexible, 

and it is compatible with multiple brands 

and types of laboratory equipment. 

www.thermofisher.co.nz/ 

wirelessmonitoring 

NEW from Molecular Devices: Rapid, accurate DNA, RNA, 

and protein quantitation in a one-touch, full-spectrum 

micro-volume absorbance reader 

The SpectraMax® QuickDrop Micro-Volume 

Spectrophotometer addresses the 

needs of life science researchers who 

[ 6 ] 

quantify very small amounts of DNA, RNA, oligos, 

and proteins. The QuickDrop Spectrophotometer 

allows you to set up your laboratory 

with a minimal investment of time, cost, and 

effort. 

Quantitate micro-volume samples with ease 

The QuickDrop Spectrophotometer provides 

you with the flexibility to work with your 

micro-volume samples in the platform that 

best suits your research. The built-in sample 

port allows you to work with volumes as small 

as 0.5 μL, preserving your precious samples, 

while the cuvette port lets you expand your 

work to include larger volume samples. 

The QuickDrop Spectrophotometer is a 

stand-alone unit with a small footprint and 

does not require a direct connection to a dedicated 

computer. The large, high-resolution 

touchscreen interface offers you the ability 

to take advantage of pre-configured analysis 

methods, set up your customized experiment 

with ease, or export your data to a USB flash 

drive for additional analysis. 

Increased sensitivity without sacrificing 

speed 

With a four second read time and no moving 

parts to skew the sample, or to potentially 

break, the QuickDrop Spectrophotometer 

maintains an accurate pathlength, providing 

you with results that are both fast and reliable, 

regardless of viscosity. 

For more information please contact Bio- 

Strategy 

T: 0800 34 24 66 

E: info@bio-strategy.com 

www.bio-strategy.com



[ 7 ]



First random laser made of paper-based ceramics 

A new biotemplating process 

makes it possible to create lasers 

out of cellulose paper. 

Working with physicists from the University 

of Rome, a team led by Professor 

Cordt Zollfrank from the Technical 

University of Munich (TUM) built the first 

controllable random laser based on cellulose 

paper in Straubing. 

The team thereby showed how naturally 

occurring structures can be adapted for technical 

applications. 

Hence, materials no longer need to be artificially 

outfitted with disordered structures, 

utilizing naturally occurring ones instead. 

Material synthesis that is inspired by biology 

is an area of research at TUM’s Chair of 

Biogenic Polymers at the Straubing Center 

of Science. It utilises models from nature and 

biogenic materials to develop new materials 

and technologies. The latest issue of the publication 

“Advanced Optical Materials” features 

a basic study by a joint team from Straubing 

and Rome who succeeded in “using a biological 

structure as a template for a technical 

random laser,” according to scientist Dr Daniel 

Van Opdenbosch. 

Two components are necessary for a laser: 

[ 8 ] 

PRODUCT NEWS 

Nikon’s all new Inverted Microscope 

Platform for advanced imaging – see 

more than before 

The Eclipse Ti2 delivers an unparalleled 

25mm field of view (FOV) that 

revolutionises the way you see. With 

this incredible FOV, the Ti2 maximises 

the sensor area of large-format CMOS 

cameras without making compromises, and 

significantly improves data throughput. The 

Ti2’s exceptionally stable, drift-free platform 

is designed to meet the demands of superresolution 

imaging while its unique hardware 

First of all, a medium which amplifies light. 

And secondly, a structure which retains the 

light in the medium. 

A classic laser uses mirrors to order and 

shine light in a single direction in a targeted, 

uniform fashion. 

This also takes place uniformly in the microscopic 

structure of a random laser, but in 

different directions. 

Although the development of the random 

laser is still in its infancy, in the future it could 

result in lower-cost production. 

This is because random lasers have the advantage 

that they are direction-independent 

and function with multiple colors, just to 

name a few benefits. 

Disordered structure deflects light in all 

directions 

“The prerequisite for a random laser is a 

defined degree of structural chaos on the 

interior,” Dr Van Opdenbosch explained. The 

light in a random laser is therefore scattered 

at all manner of angles along random paths, 

which are determined by an irregular structure 

in the interior of the medium. The team 

led by Professor Zollfrank from the Chair of 

Biogenic Polymers in Straubing used conventional 

laboratory filter paper as a structural 

template. 

“Due to its long fibers and the resulting 

triggering capabilities enhance even the 

most challenging, high-speed imaging 

applications. Furthermore, the Ti2’s unique, 

intelligent functions guide users through 

imaging workflows by gathering data from 

internal sensors, eliminating the possibility 

of user errors. In addition, the status of each 

sensor is automatically recorded during 

acquisition, providing quality control for 

imaging experiments and enhancing data 

reproducibility. In combination with Nikon’s 

powerful acquisition and analysis software, 

NIS-Elements, the Ti2 is a total innovation in 

imaging. 

Compact, High-Definition, High-Speed 

and High-Sensitivity C-mount Camera 

Nikon’s DS-Fi3 is a new high-definition 

colour microscope camera equipped with a 

5.9 megapixel CMOS image sensor. Its highspeed 

data readout, superior colour reproduction 

and high quantum efficiency are 

optimal for imaging in various observations, 

such as brightfield, DIC, phase contrast and 

fluorescence observation. 

The DS-Fi3 is equipped with a 5.9 mega- 

stable structure, we deemed it to be suitable 

for this purpose,” said Dr Van Opdenbosch. 

In the laboratory, the paper was impregnated 

with tetraethyl orthotitanate, an organometallic 

compound. 

When it is dried and the cellulose burned 

off at 500 degrees Celsius, it leaves behind the 

ceramic titanium dioxide as residue — the 

same substance generally used in sunblock to 

provide protection from the sun. 

“This effect in sunblock is based on titanium 

dioxide’s strong light scattering effect,” 

said Dr Van Opdenbosch, “which we also utilised 

for our random laser. 

“Our laser is ‘random’ because the light 

which is scattered in different directions due 

to the biogenic structure of the laboratory filter 

paper can also be scattered in the opposite 

direction,” he added, explaining the principle. 

Random laser not that random after all 

However, the light waves can still be controlled 

despite their random nature, as the 

team led by Claudio Conti of the Institute for 

Complex Systems in Rome discovered, with 

whom Daniel Van Opdenbosch and Cordt 

Zollfrank collaborated. 

With the help of a spectrometer, they were 

able to differentiate the various laser wavelengths 

generated in the material and localise 

them separately from one another. 

pixel CMOS image sensor, which enables 

the capture of high-definition images of 

up to 2880 x 2048 pixels. With a new CMOS 

image sensor and high-speed data transfer 

via USB3.0, the DS-Fi3 enables fast focusing 

even in high-resolution imaging, and efficient 

image acquisition when using a wide 

range of illumination techniques. 

For further information please contact 

Tony Bradshaw 

Coherent Scientific Pty Ltd 

tony.bradshaw@coherent.com.au 

www.coherent.com.au

Laboratory News & BioScience December 2016

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