Life Sciences Queensland

4 5 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 industry in the state. An Australian peak body providing innovation advocate, growth, research, development, and other programs with the aim of identifying new business opportunities and revving up business growth, LSQ is self-fulfilling its own narrative by virtue of being that powerful amplifier of the Queensland life sciences ecosystem. “The mission is to feed, fuel, and heal the citizens of the world,” states LSQ Chair Dr. Christine Williams. “It’s that triumvirate of feeding to save cultures, fueling using renewable, clean energy, and healing through biomedical innovation.” Previously, LSQ was known as Queensland Clinical Trials Network, an umbrella organisation primarily focused on human health and the drug development pipeline. “In 2011, we reached out to the then Premier, Anna Bligh, as we saw the need to support the emerging sectors such as agricultural technology and industrial biotechnology, especially in the regions,” remarks CEO Clare Blain. “The government at the time, along with our foundation’s supporters, was our main funding mechanism, and that support has continued over the past 10 or so years.” Blain reports that the need is still there and confirms LSQ’s vision for life sciences hasn’t changed that much since they rebranded. “The the U.S.-based international fresh fruit and vegetable dealer. “LSQ needs traction to help the sector get over its ‘baby steps’ phase,” Williams declares. “In the early days, a lot of our attention was placed on the research end, but what we see now as very important is building the industry to a more viable level. To get a real sustainable number of people here working in it so that people can come to Queensland and know that if they don’t like the job they’ve come to, there’s another one here they can move to.” She gives the example of Microba, a home-grown Brisbane-based biotech startup, which is growing “quite substantially” and adding jobs as a result. “Unfortunately, to grow at this stage usually requires taking a skilled person from another company,” Williams admits. “One of the questions we ask ourselves at LSQ is how do we build these skill sets so that we’ve actually got more people able to take the jobs of the growing companies in Queensland?” Currently, Queensland is home to more than 250 life sciences organisations, 85 core biotech companies, and over 100 bio-tech related research organisations. Still, LSQ would love to see the state become that life sciences hub for all of Asia Pacific. “We’re just so passionate about the industry and we want to make sure that the organisations that are here can remain here and don’t either go down south or, more importantly, offshore, because we’ll lose those skills and that ecosystem that’s necessary to create more jobs, more companies, and really build the sector here,” asserts Blain. “A lot of the big industry is down south but I really feel like the innovation is coming out of Queensland. And in order to become that hub, we really need to showcase what’s happening here.” Another puzzle left to solve is how to ensure skills in the regions are able to be supported. L I FE SC I ENCES QUEENSLAND main difference is that in the last few years, we’ve really put a focus on building up the regional Queensland side of things,” she says. “We interface with a number of regional councils in that regard. With Christine on board as the latest Chair, we’re actually going to revisit our strategy and work out the best way LSQ can truly support the sector and start delivering some real outcomes.” Because outcomes also have to hold out against the challenges of our ever-changing world, included in the scope of LSQ’s work are sustainability and adaptability issues that are key to those long-term successes. “It’s about making sure that the government does see the importance of the sector and continues to support all of the previous investments over the past 20 odd years,” Blain continues. “Because many of those investments are just now starting to pay real dividends with the likes of Ellume, Vaxxas, WearOptimo, and even in the case of James Dale, with his bio-fortified bananas and the Del Monte deal he did last year.” Dale, a distinguished professor, and his team of researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) successfully developed a line of Cavendish bananas resistant to Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4). The breakthrough recently led to a multi-million partnership with