A new technology giving fresh hope to researchers battling liver disease will be trialled in an Australian-first in Perth.

The Krumdieck Precision-Cut Tissue Slicer will enable researchers to select single pieces of tissue, which can be multiplied and individually tested.

The machine was developed in Germany and Curtin University was selected to house it, on the condition the equipment was made available to other researchers in the state.

Curtin University Professor John Olynyk said the slicer would be used to study liver diseases, their causes and potential treatment.

"Liver cancer and liver diseases are in the top 10 causes of global mortality," he said.

"New data shows that there is basically a three-fold rate of increase in the rate of liver cancer development.

"Coming up with pathways to improve our understanding, and possibly better ways of accessing risk and assigning treatment, is where this piece of machinery comes in."

The equipment has not yet been approved for human use, because human tissue is potentially infectious.

The machine must be quarantined in an area that complies with occupational health and safety guidelines alongside trained staff and students.

Once this is achieved, Curtin researcher Nina Tirnitz-Parker said the next step would be using the machine for individually-tailored medicine, allowing researchers to test a variety of drugs and drug concentrations to develop the best treatment.

"We can use the liver and turn it into 50 mini organ systems and see how the cells will react and the side effects," she said.

"The ultimate goal is to have a benefit for the patient, their treatment can be determined before you have to risk the patients' health."

Mr Olynyk said the machine would be an incentive to foster collaboration among researchers, and the university had already received requests from people conducting brain and muscle research.

The Fremantle Hospital Medical Research Foundation and the Curtin Health innovation Research Institute helped fund the purchase.