UK researcher's eyes opened by biotech activity down under

UK scientist and entrepreneur Prof Peter Shepherd is amazed at how much biotechnology activity there is in Australia.

The New Zealand-born researcher is in Australia to attend the AusBiotech conference in Adelaide next week. A professor at University College, London, he studies the regulation of glucose metabolism by insulin and how it contributes to type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis.

While at the AusBiotech conference, Shepherd plans to build his base of contacts among Australian companies, with the goal of forming relationships with some of them.

"Until you get down here, you don't realise how much is going on," Shepherd told Australian Biotechnology News.

"What surprises me is how much is happening at the grass roots level, with small companies starting up and so many good ideas. There's a real buzz and excitement about things."

Shepherd established Newcastle-upon-Tyne-based biotechnology company Xcellsyz in 2000, to develop novel cell-based technologies for drug discovery and development targeting diabetes and obesity. The company has developed high throughput biological screens based on immortalised human cell lines derived from human tissues that model the metabolic processes of human disease, and allow delineation of the mechanism of action.

"It's the reverse of the target-based approach. For metabolic diseases this is a more realistic way to find drugs," Shepherd, chief scientific officer and chairman of the company, says. The models are not just useful for drug development -- they have academic applications too.

Now Shepherd is setting up a new company, Symansis, to be jointly based in the UK and New Zealand, which will focus on production of antibodies in sheep for use in mapping cell function in high-throughput screens.

Shepherd said that he believed there should be more biotech industry links between the UK and Australia and New Zealand, noting that the legal and business environments of the countries had natural synergies.

But Australian companies needed to start thinking globally from the very beginning stages of setting up a company, according to Shepherd.

"I think you have to have the confidence to think globally from day one. People undervalue themselves, especially at the early stage -- you need to go right out from the start," he said.

AusBiotech 2003 starts this weekend and continues until August 19 in adelaide. For details, visit www.ausbiotech.org