1st DST/RSC/SACI symposium, November 2008
“Chemistry and innovation—from spin-out to market”
Organisers: Professor Neil Coville and Dr Alejandra Palermo

The meetings:
Wednesday 26 Nov: Workshop 1 Johannesburg (venue: University of the Witwatersrand)
Friday 28 Nov: Workshop 2 Durban (venue: University of KwaZulu Natal)
Sunday 30 Nov: Workshop 3 Stellenbosch (venue: University of Stellenbosch)

Objectives
The SA government has, in recent years, introduced a wide range of policy measures aimed at developing a knowledge-based economy by strengthening university-industry collaborations and improving the ability of business to exploit the scientific outputs of universities and public research organisations.

Speakers from the RSC, the DST and companies in SA will give talks on the issues of commercializing research findings with reference to SA. The talks will be given at THREE different venues in SA

Audience: students, scientists working on research projects with commercial potential, business managers, entrepreneurs, anyone wishing to start a SMME, government.
Registration and costs

The event is FREE. Tea and coffee will be supplied at tea times.
All who register will be welcome to attend the snacks/drinks event that will follow the Johannesburg event (no lunch supplied at this event; available at the Matrix). Lunch will be provided to those who attend the Stellenbosch and Durban events
Pre-registration is required to have lunch or participate in the post party events.

The registration form is to be found at the end of the message and is to be returned to the SACI office: saci@wits.ac.za

BACKGROUND
Research in the chemical sciences supports today’s economy and help to build new industries. UK academic research in the chemical sciences has contributed to the creation of over 150 spin-out companies. Scientists transfer knowledge from laboratory to commercial use in many different ways, for instance two of the biggest biotechnology companies in Europe, Celltech and Cambridge Antibody Technology, are based in research carried out in the 70s and 80s at UK universities and their market capitalisation totals ~£4 billions.
In the UK there are several available mechanisms that allow or facilitate academics to work with industry enabling partnership and knowledge transfer on specific challenges faced by industry. There is a new role of the SMEs in innovation in the chemical industry, particularly in the pharma sector.
The proposed seminars are designed to showcase UK and SA best practices in commercialising scientific research, supporting academia-industry links and promoting innovation. The aim will be:
• To share information on current policies for innovation, as well as mechanisms facilitating knowledge and technology transfer
• To highlight ‘best practice’ amongst a number of UK and SA research institutions collaborating with industry
• To explore opportunities for UK-SA R&D linkages and technology transfer


Introducing the RSC speakers
1) Professor Chris Lowe, Head Biotechnology Department, Cambridge University
CL was awarded the distinction of the “Most entrepreneurial scientist in the UK” in 2006. Smart Holograms is an early stage company that emerged from the sensor technology invented at Cambridge University by CL and his team. Smart Holograms raised £6M in funding from Cambridge University Challenge Fund, Partnerships UK and Porton Capital Ltd. It now consists of 30 employees (15 PhD) at two locations: Cambridge UK and San Ramon US.

2) Dr Dave Tapolczay, MRC Technology CEO.
DT started working for Searle, then Glaxo, then co-founded Cambridge Combinatorial that was later bought by Millennium. He then founded Pharmorphix that was bought by Sigma Aldridge in August 2006 at which point he returned to GSK. One of DT’s strengths is that he worked for a multinational company and also has experience in setting-up its own very successful company.

3) Professor Graham Richards, Chemistry Department, Oxford University: Professor Graham Richards recently retired as head of Chemistry at Oxford. He was the scientific founder of Oxford Molecular which was grown from a £350,000 start-up to a £450 million public company. From the deal he did to fund Oxford’s new £60 million laboratory has grown IP Group Plc which has partnerships with 10 universities and created over 70 new companies, a dozen of which have had IPOs. He is senior non-executive director of IP Group.

4) Dr Alan Chorlton, CEO Pharmorphix :AC worked for ICI and Zeneca for 17 years working in the fields of Pharmaceuticals, Agrochemicals and Speciality chemicals. He then moved on to found Cambridge Materials Science which was acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals in 2000. He was one of the founders of Pharmorphix and grew the company from 6 people to 40 today. Pharmorphix was acquired by Sigma Aldrich in 2006. AC's key strengths are a broad experience in many different chemical industries and turning opportunities in these fields into business opportunities.

Introducing the SA speakers
1) Dr Rebanta Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D, Chief Scientific Officer, iThemba Pharmaceuticals. RB obtained his Ph.D. in pharmaceutics from the University of Minnesota, working with Prof. David J.W. Grant on the phase behavior and the processing properties of molecular crystalline phases. He then went on to work on drug-product development for Bristol Myers Squibb, Pharmacia & Upjohn turned Pharmacia Corporation, and Pfizer Global R&D. Prior to joining iThemba Pharmaceuticals, RB headed the Formulation R&D division for Discovery Research in Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, where one of his interests was to implement best practices for early molecular characterization and phase selection to enable drug discovery. iThemba Pharmaceuticals (Pty) Ltd was founded to apply its expertise in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry to discover and develop small molecule therapies for the neglected diseases of the poor.

2) Dr Mahlori Jeffrey Mashimbye, Manager, Chemical Industry and Related Services, Department of Science and Technology, worked at the University of Venda for sixteen years. During his tenure at the University of Venda he was a lecturer, promoted to senior lecturer, served as the head of the chemistry department and the Dean of the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. He joined the Department of Science and Technology as a manager: Technology Extension in October 2003 and was transferred to the Chemical Industry and Related Services unit in April 2005, during restructuring.

3) Dr Brendon Hausberger I was a founding project manager of The Centre of Material and Process Synthesis (COMPS) which was set up as a University recognised Centre in late 1998. The aim of the Centre is to transfer expertise and know how in process synthesis to industry by consulting, training and process development. The Centre has grown and by 2003 included 4 full time consultants and 4 administrative staff. In 2004 COMPS entered into a contract with Golden Nest to build a 100 000 tpd Fischer Tropsch plant in China. This is a first plant in a sequence of Fischer Tropsch based plants planned to demonstrate both the novel technology developed by COMPS as well as the concept of co-feeding natural gas with coal in order to reduce CO2 emissions. In 2006 I was appointed as a Director of the centre, which role I have held until now. In this role I am responsible for the management of the financial, contractual and human resource functions of the centre and this includes direct oversight of the contract research work being undertaken at the centre.
 

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