BioCurate, an independently operated joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Monash University, and with support of the Victorian State Government, today announced the appointment of Dr Damien Bates as Acting CEO, with Founding CEO Dr C. Glenn Begley transitioning to a specialist scientific, commercial and strategic advisory role for the organisation.

An internationally experienced biotech executive, Dr Damien Bates joined BioCurate as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Translational Medicine nearly two years ago. He has played a critical role in driving the progression of projects along their respective development pathways through close collaborations with the Universities’ researchers and innovation staff, implementation of industry best practice across all aspects of project management, portfolio evaluation, industry engagement and resource allocation, and strong staff support and management.

BioCurate Chairman the Hon John Brumby AO said the leadership transition marked a critical next step for the company’s development.

“We have a well-developed project portfolio, a highly-skilled and committed team, and an excellent relationship with our Shareholder Universities. As Founding CEO, Glenn has made an outstanding contribution to BioCurate and we thank him for his untiring efforts to deliver our vision.

“We welcome Damien, who already knows the business well and has been the driving force behind the progress of our projects.  We believe he will bring new energy, breadth of knowledge and focused leadership to all areas of the business,” Mr Brumby said.

As Founding CEO of BioCurate, Dr Begley’s expertise and his deep international experience, together with his passionate commitment to helping drive quality research and translation within the university and medical research sector, has been instrumental to BioCurate’s foundational success. He has led the growth and success of BioCurate through a number of the critical stages including:

• Establishing the underpinning processes and systems required for an independent, biotech start-up company and gaining national and international recognition of the unique value the BioCurate model brings to the novel drug development process
• Recruiting a high-calibre team of internationally experienced biotech and industry experts
• Nurturing key relationships within the Shareholder Universities, Victorian State Government and the broader medical research and innovation sector
• Building BioCurate’s investment portfolio of highly prospective projects through the review of > 100 early-stage research projects, and
• Advancing capability in Australia’s research and innovation community through hundreds of hours of mentoring, lectures and training focused on translation and commercialisation.

“I am most proud of the staff and team culture that BioCurate has built and remain fully committed to the vision. I am delighted with Damien’s appointment – he, COO Linda Peterson and the BioCurate team, have my unwavering support. I look forward to supporting them as the company moves through its next exciting phase,” Dr Begley said.

Dr Bates said, “It is a great privilege to take over the reins from Glenn. I am looking forward to continuing to work closely with the Board, Shareholders and staff to support research that has commercial potential, and driving projects through to fruition – thereby getting one step closer to realising our mission of translating medical research outputs into high quality preclinical candidates for the bio-pharmaceutical industry and eventually new safe & effective therapies for the community.”

About BioCurate

BioCurate is a bold, collaborative venture, dedicated to delivering benefits to the community by helping to advance Australia’s research and innovation globally. Jointly formed by the University of Melbourne and Monash University, with support from the Victorian State Government, BioCurate identifies promising biomedical research discoveries and manage their translation into high quality pre-clinical candidates with the aim to develop potential novel human therapeutics. We operate in the under-resourced, yet critical, early phases of therapeutic development to overcome common barriers to success and drive early decisions. BioCurate is operationally independent, with a team of experts that brings decades of scientific and commercial expertise, enabling us to recognise and realise real-world potential and providing a critical bridge between academia and industry.

For more information about BioCurate, visit www.biocurate.com
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MEDIA CONTACT
Becky Evans
Edelman for BioCurate
+61452 579 242
becky.evans@edelman.com

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The investment will support medical research projects delivered in partnership with knowledge institutes and industry stakeholders, anchored at key innovation and employment precincts, including the Monash Precinct, and Parkville’s Biomedical Precinct, where BioCurate is based.

The Breakthrough Victoria Fund will include the introduction of a new long-term investment strategy, underpinned by a partnership between industry, research, philanthropic and finance sectors.

The funding will not only play to Victoria’s strengths in the health and life-science industry, but also help support R&D adoption and commercialisation by supporting 15,700 jobs over the next decade.

BioCurate is particularly pleased given that the Breakthrough Victoria Fund was proposed by the Chairman of BioCurate and previous Premier, the Hon. John Brumby AO in a piece published a month ago. In the piece, he advocated investment in Victoria’s knowledge economy to capitalise on the outstanding medical research with the goal to achieve clinical impact and successful commercial outcomes.

Dr Glenn Begley, CEO of BioCurate noted this was a fantastic and visionary initiative that will yield rewards for future generations. The billion dollars commitment was a vote of confidence in Victoria’s world-class biotech sector, highlighting the important role research commercialisation plays in our State’s economic recovery.

“Victoria is home to our country’s best researchers and innovators. We have a vibrant biotechnology commercial sector and well-established R&D infrastructure, making our state a highly sought-after destination by global companies. We would like to thank and congratulate the Victorian Government for their vision and recognition of the biotech sector through the Breakthrough Victoria Fund, which will help advance Australian research and innovation globally,” said Begley.

About BioCurate

BioCurate was specifically created to invest in, manage and commercialise innovative Australian medical research. We provide a critical bridge between academia and industry by identifying promising research and accelerating its development for real-world clinical impact, while ensuring scientific and commercial rigour. Our multi-disciplinary team has an extensive global network and a proven track record in producing commercially successful therapies, positioning BioCurate well to drive the most feasible commercial pathway forward and improve people’s lives.

For more information about BioCurate, visit www.biocurate.com
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MEDIA CONTACT
Chenny Wulandari
Edelman for BioCurate
+61 411 582102
Chenny.wulandari@edelman.com

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BioCurate aims to drive the successful translation of basic medical research towards the generation of new human therapies and potential cures and by doing so, aims to directly address the barriers that limit the translation and commercialisation of early-stage research. AbbVie is committed to addressing serious health issues, collaborating with hundreds of biotech companies, universities, not-for-profits and government organisations to advance science every year.

Niels Emmerich, AbbVie, Vice President, Search & Evaluation said “An emphasis on collaboration is an important part of our approach to R&D. We look for opportunities to work with partners, like BioCurate, who share our goals for addressing serious health issues. We are committed to nurturing an ecosystem that enables movement of research ideas and inventions into investable ventures, in ways that will create a sustainable pipeline overtime.”

BioCurate has several projects, emanating from the two Universities, that are currently under management in its investment portfolio. Under the MoU, the companies may collaborate on projects of specific interest within the portfolio. In addition, AbbVie will provide scientific advice and commercial perspective for projects within their therapeutic areas of focus (immunology, oncology, gastroenterology, virology, neuroscience, eyecare, women’s health and aesthetics), both directly and via participation in BioCurate’s Industry and Scientific Advisory Committee, to help optimise the development pathway of products in BioCurate’s portfolio.

Dr Glenn Begley, CEO of BioCurate, said the partnership with AbbVie is testament to the high caliber of Australian research that is widely recognised not only among the biomedical research community, but also by the pharmaceutical industry locally and abroad.

“BioCurate exists to drive the translation of promising research into new drug therapies by harnessing the knowledge and insights of our scientific community and collaborating with key partners along the development path. We are thrilled that AbbVie has joined our network of local and global industry partners with our mutual goal to advance promising early stage discoveries of new human therapeutics.” Dr Begley said.

Mr Chris Stemple, AbbVie General Manager ANZ said “Australia has had a long-standing reputation as a world leader in medical research, but unfortunately also one for being below average in commercialisation.”

“At AbbVie, we bring people together because we know that collaboration is the key to breaking barriers and exploring new frontiers in science. This collaboration with BioCurate is an exciting example of a partnership that aims to increase the speed at which new treatments are made available to those who need them.” Mr Stemple said.

About BioCurate

BioCurate was formed jointly in June 2016 by the University of Melbourne and Monash University, with support from the Victorian State Government, to accelerate early phases of new drug development.

The Company’s vision is to be a recognised global leader in the translation of basic medical research into human therapeutics. BioCurate‘s mission is to grow the Victorian and Australian biotech sector by translating medical research outputs into high quality pre-clinical candidates for the bio-pharmaceutical industry, venture capital companies and philanthropic funding agencies.

BioCurate is one of the key partners in the Biomedical Translation Bridge Program, a national initiative of the Australian Government aimed at nurturing the translation of new therapies, technologies and medical devices through to the proof of concept stage.

For more information about BioCurate, visit www.biocurate.com

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About AbbVie in Australia

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative advanced therapies for some of the world’s most complex and critical conditions. Our heritage in Australia reaches back more than 80 years and we employ more than 450 people with our therapies currently benefiting more than 40,000 Australians. The company’s mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments. Recently, we acquired Allergan which immediately diversified our business across several therapeutic areas: Immunology, Oncology, Virology, Neuroscience and Aesthetics.

For further information please visit www.abbvie.com.au or connect with us via social media at @abbvie_AU on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or our LinkedIn page.

Media contacts

BioCurate
Linda Peterson
Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary
+61 419 320 435
l.peterson@biocurate.com

AbbVie
Lisa Maguire
Director Communications and Patient Relations
+61 499 200 550
lisa.maguire@abbvie.com

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The team’s expansion will enable BioCurate to more effectively manage those projects within the portfolio that are making significant progress, as well as giving us greater potential to take on additional projects.

Andy brings extensive experience in working with multidisciplinary teams and driving commercialisation opportunities, while Belinda and Heique both have a breadth of experience managing drug discovery projects in collaboration with academic, contract research organisations, and industry stakeholders.

Critical to BioCurate’s success to achieve its mission is building a collaborative team of highly experienced and dedicated individuals who understand the challenges and opportunities of biomedical research, from both an academic and an industry perspective.

With an extensive, global network within the biotechnology sector, and a cache of knowledge and understanding of industry best practice, intellectual property and regulatory approvals, the BioCurate team is well positioned to chart the most practical pathway forward.

BioCurate is invested in the success of researchers and is committed to working with them to create therapies that have a lasting impact on the lives of patients.

To learn more about the team behind BioCurate, click here.

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BioCurate continues to build on its breadth and depth of expertise and global experience by expanding our team. This is critical in achieving our mission to translate early stage discoveries into therapeutics for patients.

Dr Heique Bogdawa is a biochemist with 12 years of experience in protein engineering across both academia and industry.

With a specific expertise in the development of high-quality biologics to assist with hit candidate identification and pre-clinical validation, Heique has worked in a variety of drug discovery programs using bioprocessing platforms to produce recombinant proteins to treat chronic illnesses, including infection, vascular diseases, inflammation and cancer.

After finishing her PhD in Biochemistry at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, which was partially undertaken at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, she completed two years of postdoctoral studies. Heique moved from Brazil to Australia to join Phylogica, a biotech company based in Perth, Western Australia. Here, she rose to the position of Principal Scientist where she coordinated R&D projects and engaged with different stakeholders, from CROs to pharmaceutical companies around Australia and the world.

Leaving industry in early 2018, Heique joined the University of Queensland where she oversaw the Protein Expression Facility. During her time in Brisbane, Heique implemented strategies to improve protein production capabilities to accelerate research in therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics.

Heique’s personal motivation is to nurture meaningful scientific partnerships to bridge the “knowledge to action” process in order to effectively translate research into the clinic.

We are delighted that she has decided to join the BioCurate team!

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BioCurate is an in-kind participant in the Centre, which will investigate membrane protein structures in detail, using the power of cryo-electron microscopy, to guide structure-enhanced drug design.

The new training Centre, to be led by Professor Patrick Sexton at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), will provide strong links between academic and commercial partners.The MIPS-led consortium includes the University of Melbourne, University of Wollongong, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) and industry partners including Catalyst Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Dimerix Bioscience and Thermo Fisher Scientific. More than 20 investigators will be involved across the collaborating organisations.

Congratulations to the Centre team on the exciting news and we look forward to working alongside the Centre’s investigators training the next generation of researchers in the principles of therapeutic discovery.

Find out more from the Australian Research Council.

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BioCurate’s mission is to translate discoveries made at the lab bench into therapeutics that make an impact on the lives of patients. Critical to our success is building a team of highly experienced and dedicated individuals.

Dr Andy Allen is a microbiologist with over 20 years’ experience in academia, small biotechs and large pharmaceutical companies.

Andy began his career in industry at Arrow Therapeutics as the Head of Molecular Biology. He has also been the Head of Laboratory Sciences at Oxford Gene Technology and a Senior Principal Scientist at Zoetis. During this time, he has led projects to discover novel antimicrobial targets, to optimise emerging genomic research methods, and to develop animal vaccines, leading to two patents.

Andy left industry in 2016 when he joined the University of Melbourne as the Business Manager Research Platforms before becoming a Senior Academic Fellow in Commercialisation.

As a result of his extensive and varied career, Andy is highly skilled at working with multidisciplinary teams and collaborators to meet project budgets, timelines and governance requirements, as well as developing business relationships and seeking commercialisation opportunities.

Andy completed his Bachelor of Science (Honours) at the University of Southampton, majoring in Biochemistry. Following the completion of his PhD degree in protein chemistry at the University of Cambridge, Andy held several postdoctoral positions in the UK before transitioning into industry.

We are delighted that he has decided to join the BioCurate team!

Dr Andy Allen commenced in his new role on 13 July 2020.

Click here to read more about Andy.

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BioCurate is focused on turning discoveries into therapeutics, and is building a team of highly-experienced individuals capable of working collaboratively to ensure the company’s success.

Dr Belinda Huff is a medicinal chemist with 8 years drug discovery experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Belinda began working as a research scientist at Bionomics in 2012 and progressed to the position of medicinal chemistry project manager. She has been involved in a range of drug discovery projects primarily in the areas of neuroscience and oncology, including being a key scientific contributor to a project that was licensed to pharma and is currently in clinical trials.  Belinda has managed projects involving many collaborators and CROs located in Australia and around the world and has developed numerous skills and tools to support successful relationships with stakeholders.

Belinda completed her Bachelor of Science (Molecular Biology) with Honours at the University of Adelaide and went on to earn her PhD in organic chemistry from the University of New South Wales.

We are delighted that she has decided to join the BioCurate team!

Dr Belinda Huff will commence in her new role on 10 June 2020.

Click here to read more about Belinda.

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Dr Lorna Mitchell is leading a BioCurate and Monash University team to investigate new medicines for the treatment of blood cancers including Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and multiple myeloma (MM).

The NDDC provides researchers in Australia with access to the latest in advanced robotic high-throughput screening to ensure patients will benefit from novel treatments sooner.

The subsidy covers 90 per cent of the cost of using the NDDC, reducing the cost of a traditional screening campaign – normally upwards of $300,000 – to around $30,000-$45,000.

Congratulations to Dr Lorna Mitchell and the project team for this latest accomplishment.

Find out more about the four projects awarded subsidies.

Visit the National Drug Discovery Centre website for more information.

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When I was a young backbencher in the Hawke Government, one of the people I admired and learned from was the Minister for Science, Barry Jones. Barry had written the globally influential book Sleepers, Wake! in which he warned that ‘technologically based transitions create revolutionary economic and social changes.’ He called on governments to shape the future for the better through smart responses to technological change. To his credit, Barry Jones pushed the Hawke Government to invest a lot more in science, R&D and technology. He secured some wins, including a $1m National Biotechnology Program. Barry once told me, however, that he had a recurring nightmare. He worried that after all our efforts and all our investments, we would look back in years to come and find that Australian scientific research had not moved far along the path from the laboratory to the market. If this happened then our research would have failed to make its maximum possible impact in the world.

I’m afraid to say these fears came true. Australia can be proud of our scientific achievements, especially in medical research. But an ongoing frustration is that too little of it makes the long journey to market. Too much is lost in the ‘valley of death’ before it can even reach the clinical trial stage. And if it doesn’t reach clinical trial, it can’t reach patients. BioCurate was set up to address this problem, and has already become an important part of Australia’s innovation ecosystem.

BioCurate came about thanks to an unprecedented partnership between the Vice Chancellors of Victoria’s two biggest universities: Monash University and the University of Melbourne. It was the first time two universities of this size, in such close proximity to one another (making them competitors) had come together in this way. Both Vice Chancellors recognised that their universities were sitting on a gold mine. Melbourne and Monash receive about $100m per annum each in government funding for medical research, and both are in the top 100 universities in the world for research output. But the Vice Chancellors also realised that the right settings were not in place to make good on the promise of this research—to get it to the bedsides of the patients that need it. They decided to put their money where their mouths were. Each university invested $25m, and the Victorian Government invested another $10m. BioCurate was launched in 2016, and I was proud to come on board as Chair. In 2017 we were delighted to appoint distinguished haematologist and oncologist Dr Glenn Begley as BioCurate’s inaugural CEO.

Read the entire essay on Innovation Intelligence’s website

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