(BusinessDesk) - New Zealand Genomics, tasked with providing genomics infrastructure to researchers nationwide, had a 36 percent turnover boost in the September year compared to the previous year.

Genomics is the study of genes and genomes and their application in a wide range of fields from agriculture to medicine. NZGL was set up in 2010, funded by the government and three universities, as a genomics infrastructure provider to boost the use of genomic technologies in research.

Chief executive Tony Lough said his company had delivered services to researchers within nearly every university, crown research institute, and genomics-consuming company in New Zealand in the past year with turnover at $2.51 million across 252 service agreements for about 500 researchers.

"Every performance metric is positive. We're doing better than I thought we would be," he said.

The most substantial project NZGL has been involved in to date is supporting the consolidation of four regional breast cancer centres with the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation and the Ministry of Health. The research will link clinical data and genomic data so a national database can be developed to provide a world-leading platform for researchers, Lough said.

The register should be in beta testing by the end of the year and they were just about to select a vendor, he said.

NZGL's annual report includes a number of other case studies of research it has helped from genomics research into the "jumping genes" of grapes that could see new styles of wines to helping the kakapos long-term survival to a new look at medicinal maggots.

In the wine example, Lincoln University senior lecturer Chris Winefield is studying transpoons - DNA sequences which move from one location on the genome to another. He's studying whether the normally silent transpoons can be reawakened and reinserted into new locations in the grape genome to potentially create new clones of New Zealand's two key varietals, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. NZGL's Bio-IT platform