By Gianina Schwanecke
The team, called UCiGEM, will compete in Paris. Back row from left: William Oakley, Matthew Goodwin, Isabel Bradley and Myles Landon. Front row from left: Amy Dellow, Maddie Barrett, Joseph Ramana and Bree Drinkwater. Photo: Supplied / University of Canterbury
A team of students from the University of Canterbury is heading to the world stage with a device they've invented to help with faster detection of a disease common in dairy cattle.
The eight biochemistry students are taking their device LuMoo to the iGem synthetic biology grand jamboree in Paris later this month.
LuMoo is designed to help with the detection of Johne's Disease - a bacterial infection in ruminants like cattle, which costs New Zealand's dairy industry up to $88 million a year in lost production.
"Particularly here in New Zealand it's a big problem for our dairy cows," team leader Joseph Ramana said.
"What happens is they start to lose a lot of body condition, start to get really thin, and because of this infection they are no longer able to be milked."
The third year biochemistry student said their product aimed to cut laboratory testing out of the diagnostic process, allowing farmers to "take action faster".
The idea for the project came from a member of the team who worked on a farm over the summer and had seen the effects of Johne's disease firsthand.
Team member Amy Dellow said lab testing for the disease can take up to two weeks to provide results.
"We're aiming to provide them with accurate results within minutes or seconds using this device," she said.
"Our method is to detect the pathogen that causes Johne's disease using an engineered protein that produces light. The appearance of a light indicates a negative result: no light means infection is present."
Being able to detect the disease rapidly would allow for "more effective herd management".
The project is still currently in the proof of concept stage with the device being manufactured.
Dellow said she was excited to be heading to Paris: "I'm very excited to go overseas and represent the university with our research, to compete against some of the top universities out there, which is exciting."
Ramana agreed, adding that it was an incredible opportunity to go to the world stage to represent New Zealand.
Alongside Ramana and Dellow, the team includes Isabel Bradley, Bree Drinkwater, Maddie Barrett, Myles Landon, William Oakley and Matthew Goodwin.
They are the only New Zealanders taking part in the competition, which attracts about 4000 attendees from 60 different countries.
The students are fund-raising to cover the cost of the trip and have set up a Givealittle page.
