Synthetic biology can create safe, sustainable food and beverage products. Applied to agriculture, crops can be enhanced nutritionally while requiring less water and fertiliser inputs. New and healthier oils, proteins and other food ingredients can be developed through fermentation.

Together, these techniques help Australia to achieve food security in a changing climate. At ANU, we are fortunate to have capabilities in both plant and microbial synbio for agriculture, food and beverage industries. 

Australian Plant Phenomics Facility

The Australian Plant Phenomics Facility node at ANU is a world-leading infrastructure facility funded through NCRIS to accelerate the development of new and improved crops. Projects can be conducted by ANU staff on behalf of the researcher or by a visiting researcher at the facility. The Facility is located within the Linnaeus Building 134 on the ANU Acton campus in Canberra and consists of PC2 facilities and:

• A modern greenhouse facility which includes precision environmental control and top down RGB real time imaging of plant growth to analyse genetic variation in water use efficiency in plant growth, as well as a glasshouse Balance Array (real time pot weighing system).
• Conviron plant growth cabinets enabling research projects that require accurate climate controlled environments. Including the Spectral Pheno Climatron (SPC) chambers equipped with 7 HEliospectra LEDs and 10 bands LED lights, top down nIR, DSLR RGB and time lapse imaging and simulated climate control.
• PSI TrayScan a high throughput plant analysis system incorporating, thermal, RGB and fluorescence imaging capable of processing 15 trays per hour.

ARC Training Centre for Future Crop Development

Located next to the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, the ARC Training Centre for Future Crop Development is building new capabilities for agriculture and food security. The Centre is led by ANU in collaboration with CSIRO, University of Adelaide and NSW Department of Primary Industries along with industry partners across Australia.

The Centre commenced in 2022 and will operate for five years to build future R&D capabilities in the Agrifood sector to drive growth, productivity and competitiveness for the benefit of agriculture and global food security. Research topics focus on:

• Synthetic biology
• Crops targeting
• Traits targeting
• Increasing yield & grain quality
• Responsible innovation