Wool Research Fellow Returns To N.Z.

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30745, 8 May 1965, Page 16

Wool Research Fellow Returns To N.Z.

The second holder of a fellowship from the Wool Research Organisation to return to New Zealand to join the staff of the organisation is Dr D. F. Orwin. The other fellow to return is Dr. G. A. Wickham, who has since joined the staff of Massey University of Manawatu. Dr. Orwin was granted a fellowship in 1961 and has since been at Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States, where he last year completed the requirement for a doctorate of philosophy. His doctorate was done in biology and he specialised in physiological genetics. He studied the genetic mutation which results in mice losing their hair. Dr. Orwin said that this was a natural mutation which also occurred in rats and he thought that it also occurred in sheep. The aim of the! study was to obtain an under-1 standing of the processes in-j volved in forming normaL i hair. i Dr. Orwin said that while I he was on the staff of the j ■ Wool Research Organisation I i

[he would be engaged in tissue culture studies with the object of obtaining an understanding of processes involved in the synthesis of the proteins forming wool. An understanding of these processes was necessary if wool was to be modified during processing. On his way home from Brown University Dr. Orwin visited tissue culture laboratories in the United States England and Australia to learn techniques of tissue culture and to learn of developments in the hair and wool biology field. Pending the completion of the Wool Research Organisation’s new laboratories at Lincoln, Dr. Orwin is working with the cytogenetics unit of the Cancer Society of New Zealand (Canterbury-West-land Division).

Born in Wellington, Dr. j Orwin was educated at Wellington College. Victoria College and Massey College where in 1959 he graduated master of agricultural science Later he worked at Massev for two years as an assistant research officer, his salary being paid by the Wool Board.