Biochemist joins new laboratory

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 23

Biochemist joins new laboratory

PA Auckland A British biochemist, Dr G. Chapman, is the first appointment made to the staff of the National Hormones for therepeutic established at Auckland University. The laboratory, the first of its kind in New Zealand. will be within the department of biochemistry under the over-all direction of Professor A. G, Renwick. One of Dr Chapman’s main tasks will be the extraction and purification of human pituitary hormones for the repeutic and diagnostic purposes, including certain growth disorders in children.

Until now, pituitary glands have been sent to the United States for this purpose and the extracted products returned to growth and development clinics at Auckland and Christchurch Hospitals. For this reason, the laboratory is expected to save the country thousands of dollars a year. Dr Chapman completed .M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Oxford University and then spent two years as a United States Atomic Energy Commission postdoctoral fellow in Washington. For the last six years he has been doing research and teaching degree students at the Portsmouth Polytechnic Biophysics Laboratories.