Chennai: Professor Ross Barnard, leading Biotechnology expert at the University of Queensland (UQ), will present a free public lecture on "Advances in Biotechnology at UQ" at the Taj Coromandel in Chennai on November 16, 2009.

In a bid to curb the influence of the changing climate and sprawling population, next generation approaches in disease detection and prevention are being developed by the biotechnologists at UQ.

Prof. Barnard will discuss developments like Bio-Fuel production from non-food crops, Dengue diagnostics, Dengue fever prevention and the world's first cervical cancer vaccination.

Prof. Barnard, an expert in infectious diseases, said UQ is investigating exotic diseases due to global change. "We are getting more exotic diseases, because as our population increases it is expanding into new environments which mean we are becoming exposed to new insects and new viruses, so we need to look at novel approaches in diagnosis and vaccine production to help detect and prevent diseases," said the expert.

Along with the recently launched vaccine for cervical cancer, developed by UQ's Professor Ian Fraser, UQ researchers are developing vaccines targeted at viruses such as dengue, avian influenza and swine flu.

"Some of our researchers are looking to our oceans flora and fauna for new compounds and antibodies that could be used in new drugs to combat emerging diseases while other UQ researchers are working on novel ways to change the mosquito life cycle so it cannot transmit disease," he said.

The University's biotechnologists are not stopping at diseases. They are finding ways to genetically engineer plants to use them as an alternative fuel to absorb nitrogen, a "greenhouse" gas, from the atmosphere, or to improve plant productivity.

Such research has helped UQ establish itself as a leading research university in the field of life science and biomedicine, now ranked between American universities Princeton (ranked 27) and Columbia (ranked 29) in The Times Higher Education Supplement.