Partnerships

We have forged strong national and international linkages with researchers and organisations with expertise and resources that complement our own. We aim to strengthen and extend our current partnerships and build new ones in the future. We welcome expressions of interest from both academia and industry. More information about our most significant current partnerships can be found on our Research partnerships pages.

These partners are:

National Research Centre for Growth and Development (NRCGD)
The Liggins Institute is the leading partner of the NRCGD, the largest of New Zealand’s seven Centres of Research Excellence.

AgResearch
The Liggins Institute has a memorandum of understanding with AgResearch, New Zealand’s largest Crown Research Institute. The two organisations collaborate to advance understanding of the biology of growth and development, and to apply that knowledge to both biomedicine and pastoral agriculture. AgResearch is a partner in the NRCGD.

Epi Gen Research Consortium
The Liggins Institute (through Auckland Uniservices Ltd) is a foundation partner in the Epi Gen consortium which jointly develops and finds applications for research in developmental epigenetics.

International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)
DOHaD was set up to promote research into the fetal and developmental origins of adult disease and involves scientists from many backgrounds. Its inaugural chair was Professor Peter Gluckman, the founding Director of the Liggins Institute. The Institute works closely with the Institute of Developmental Sciences at The University of Southampton led by Professor Mark Hanson.

Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS)
The Liggins Institute has a strategic, collaborative partnership with the SICS. They have established a major new laboratory in Singapore to conduct research into the origins of obesity and diabetes with a particular focus on Asian populations.

Commercial research
The Institute undertakes research on contract or in partnership with a number of commercial organisations. Some of these have arisen through the Epi Gen Consortium.

Intellectual property resulting from research at the Liggins Institute has been or is being further developed into commercial applications by spin out biotechnology companies Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd, BrainZ Instruments Ltd and Saratan Therapeutics Ltd.

All commercial contracts and relationships are managed through Auckland Uniservices Ltd.