Adjunct Professor
Bharat Patel

Private collection of Extreme environment microbes from Australian habitats (The Australian Extremophile Bank, TAEB): US, Japan and EEC commissioned reports had identified the lack of physiological diverse cultures ("extremophiles") from extreme environments as a major bottleneck and hindrance in industrial biotechnology. This lack stems from the culturing difficulties of extremophiles. I have been leading cutting edge research in the area of microbial diversity of extremophiles and their potential applications in industry. My laboratory has developed novel microbiology, molecular biology, microbial physiology, and bioinformatics techniques and approaches for the isolation of a wide variety of useful extremophiles from the Australian environments such as the Great Artesain Basin, a unique, hot, deep subsurface and chemically heterogenous ecosystem, as a resource for potential industrial applications. This microbial collection of extremophiles, the Australian Extremophile Bank (TAEB) is an extremely valuable asset for extremozymes. Extremozymes from The Australian Extremophile Bank (TAEB):A number of companies have accessed the TAEB collection for extremozymes. Examples of such companies include Proteus Ltd, France which has partial access to this private collection for commercialisation of certain enzymes. Astra-Zenica-GU has screened a part of the collection for important biomolecules. Specific enzymes have also been screened from this collection for a contract by ABEnzymes, Germany. A project was funded by the Sugar Research & Development Corporation to screen the collectuion for thermostable dextranases suited to the sugar industry process. A search for thermostable enzymes useful for molecular biology was funded by a collaborative ARC grant with Progen Industries and La Trobe University. Additionally, industrial food enzymes e.g xylanases and lactases isolated from some strains have interested commercial users of enzymes in Australia and overseas. Pipeline biocorrosion:Biocorrosion is a major problem in industries which uses metal pipes extensively (e.g. oil industry, water industry). Economic losses due to corrosion run into the tens of millions of dollars and we hve been investigating the role of microbes in the corrosion of oil pipes (in conjunction with Oil Company of Australia, ORSTOM, Elf Aquitane) and bore pipes (Queensland Water Resources). An understanding of the biological process will lead to developments of methods for the control of corrosion causing microbial populations. Industry, ARC and Water Resources Commission of Queensland have supported this area of research with cash and in-kind grants. New molecular techniques for pathogen identification: New rapid and relatively inexpensive methods for identifying pathogenic microbes without the need to culture have also ben developed with industry partners. Methods have been developed to identify pathogenic Leptospira, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacteriaand Arcobacter. The methods were developed in collaboration with Queensland Health Scientific Health Services (QHSS) and WHO/FAO leptospirosis reference laboratories with funding from ARC and QHSS. One the method that was developed has been validated for routine use in the WHO/FAO leptospirosis reference laboratories. A major future goal is to use data generated form Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to develop robust molecular techniques for the diagnostic industries.