Sutherland retires to pursue biotech

Professor Grant Sutherland, one of Australia's leading geneticists, is retiring as the director of the Department of Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide.

Sutherland is planning to become more involved in South Australia's biotechnology industry.

"I've become more interested and involved in biotech over the last few years," said Sutherland, explaining that he is working with three Adelaide based biotech companies at present, including genomics company Bionomics - a company he helped found - and TGR Biosciences, which developed from the CRC for Tissue Growth and Repair.

"I see the biotechnology industry having a great future in South Australia and I would like to be part of it."

"I'm interested in going onto company boards and scientific advisory committees," he said, adding that he believes the experience he has gained from his involvement in biotech so far will be useful to other biotech companies. Sutherland is co-chair of Bionomics' scientific advisory board and a director of TGR Biosciences.

According to Sutherland, one of the motivating factors in his decision to retire is the difficulty in combining biotech and the public sector.

"There are a lot of public service rules that prevent public servants from becoming directors and holding equity in spin-out ventures," he claimed, saying that Australia needed to improve its attitudes towards commercialisation of research.

Sutherland has been at the Women's and Children's Hospital since 1975, and has built the Department of Cytogenetics from a small diagnostic unit into a research centre of 80 scientists. The department was the only Australian participant in the Human Genome Project.

Sutherland plans to continue research as a part-time Women's and Children's Hospital Foundation Research Fellow and will also remain an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Adelaide.

His research into the genetic basis of mental retardation won him the Australia Prize in 1998 and the Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research in 2001. Sutherland was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1998.

"I would like to thank the Women's and Children's Hospital for the outstanding support it has offered to research during my time here," said Sutherland. His last day as director is April 5th.