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    • Rights: The University of Waikato
    Published 16 November 2007 Referencing Hub media
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    New Zealand biotechnology is a developing, world-class industry. Find out more about the exciting work being done, and the diversity of different projects in this second of a 4-part series produced by NZBio.

    See below for links to the other videos in this series:

    This clip was produced in conjunction with NZBio.

    Transcript

    Narrator Other groups are investigating how our own immune response1 might be used to create vaccines to prevent diseases2.

    Joanna Kirman (Malaghan Institute of Medical Research) At the Malaghan Institute the work I am involved in is, basically, aiming to get vaccines implemented for three diseases. These are tuberculosis, respiratory syncytial virus and rotovirus. Two to 3 million people die every year from TB3, but in NZ it infects about 1 New Zealander a day on average, and of interest for us is the fact that there is a lot of multi drug4 resistance strains of TB that are being introduced into NZ.

    Narrator: The Malaghan Institute is also running a Melanoma Vaccine Programme.

    Julie Walton Malaghan Institute of Medical Research For this project we are making vaccines for patients from their own tumours and from their own blood cells. Basically we’re activating the immune system in the lab and then giving it back to the patient, which produces and immune response which is able to fight the cancer.

    Narrator Other companies are using novel5 techniques to produce drugs for cancer6 treatment. And experts from several different fields are working together to determine how foods and food components affect our health at the molecular level. Research by the Nutrigenomics group aims to help us select foods that enhance our personal health, as well as providing exciting growth opportunities for our food industries.

    1. immune response: How your body recognises and defends itself against bacteria, viruses and substances that appear foreign and harmful.
    2. diseases: 1. An abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions. 2. In plants, an abnormal condition that interferes with vital physiological processes.
    3. tuberculosis: Tuberculosis or TB (short for tubercle bacillus) is a common but often deadly bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs.
    4. drug: A pharmaceutical drug could be a medicine or chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment or prevention of disease.
    5. novel: New or unusual in an interesting way.
    6. cancer: The term for a group of more than 100 diseases in which abnormal cells divide and multiply uncontrollably.
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      immune response

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      2. How your body recognises and defends itself against bacteria, viruses and substances that appear foreign and harmful.

      drug

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      3. A pharmaceutical drug could be a medicine or chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment or prevention of disease.

      diseases

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      4. 1. An abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions.

      2. In plants, an abnormal condition that interferes with vital physiological processes.

      novel

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      5. New or unusual in an interesting way.

      tuberculosis

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      6. Tuberculosis or TB (short for tubercle bacillus) is a common but often deadly bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs.

      cancer

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      7. The term for a group of more than 100 diseases in which abnormal cells divide and multiply uncontrollably.

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