The Australian National Phenome Centre's world class technologies will help transform how long and how well people live, not just in Australia, but around the world.
Our unique position
The ANPC is one of the largest and best-equipped metabolic laboratories in the world, incorporating 10 high-field Nuclear magnetic resonance systems, 36 mass spectrometric systems of multiple designs and advanced data modelling and visualisation.
Located next to one of the most technologically advanced private and publicly-funded hospital precincts in Australia, the ANPC is uniquely positioned to deliver revolutionary research across the full spectrum of health, food and the environment.
World class technologies
The Australian National Phenome Centre has been designed to study human metabolic phenotypes using integrated analytical technologies that are sensitive, accurate and highly reproducible. It has one of the largest and most comprehensive capabilities of this kind in the world and is linked to an international network of laboratories to enhance standardisation and harmonisation of technologies.
Our analytical and modelling approaches can be applied to population-scale phenotyping, biomarker discoveries, optimisation of personal nutrition and also for patient stratification in acute and chronic medical conditions including critical care and trauma.
This strategy can also be used to study other biological systems relevant to agricultural production, bioprospecting, environmental health, conservation science and many more.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
The ANPC has one of the largest suites of NMRs in the world for metabolic phenotyping, including an ultra-high field 800MHz NMR with cryoprobe which offers superior peak resolution, spectral dispersion and sensitivity for discovery-driven science.
NMR spectroscopy can be applied to understand molecular structures and quantitative bioanalysis for almost any type of biological liquid or solid. The ANPC exploits the high-field strengths of its NMRs to improve sensitivity, resolution and speed of analysis of biological samples including urine, serum, plasma and tissue.
Mass Spectrometry
The ANPC has established an extensive range of mass spectrometry platforms of multiple designs and modalities that are complementary to its repertoire of NMRs.
The internationally-renowned research team leverages these unique capabilities for large-scale epidemiological studies at unprecedented scale and speed.
Global network
Through its global connections, the ANPC will participate in multi-centre, large-scale metabolic phenotyping studies into a range of diseases and health issues including diabetes, autism, antimicrobial resistance and cancer, to gain insights into the environmental, genetic and social factors influencing development and expression of these conditions.
Research at the ANPC is connected with work at similar centres across the International Phenome Centre Network, including sites in London, Birmingham, Hong Kong and Singapore, supported by Bruker Biospin and Bruker Daltonics. This collaboration will progress the global understanding of how diverse environmental and cultural conditions affect a range of serious diseases and conditions.
Data science capabilities
The ANPC hosts an array of computational technologies and capabilities that enable researchers to interrogate spectroscopic data and develop new methods to reverse engineer biological processes, based on the measurement of chemicals in bio samples.
The high-performance CPU and GPU systems allow ANPC scientists to significantly accelerate computational run-time and perform in silico experiments and data visualisation tasks.
The centre’s data visualisation facility includes a high-resolution video wall with 3D capabilities, as well as a spherical projection system extended with track ball system, suited for immersive reality projects and spectroscopic imaging applications.