WEHI Special New Medicines & Diagnostics Seminar hosted by Professor Guillaume Lessene

Professor Michael Wallach

Regional Director of SPARK Oceania, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

SPARKing Research Translation and Commercialisation

 

Davis Auditorium

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

I have over 35 years of experience in basic and applied molecular parasitology. My project on Eimeria in chickens (the causative agent of coccidiosis, which is the most economically important disease of any kind in the chicken industry), has led to the development, patenting, registration and marketing of a maternally based, subunit vaccine against the disease called CoxAbic^®. I have a BSc from the University of Michigan (1973) and an MSc & PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (1980). I was appointed as the inaugural Director of the Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases at UTS in 2002 and have been there since that time. I have also been an adjunct Professor at the Technion, Israel in the Faculty of Biotechnology since 2007. In 2014 I was appointed as Director of the SPARK Sydney program which included UTS, the University of Sydney & Macquarie University. SPARK is a program designed to help researchers take their research from the bench to the patient. It originated at Stanford Medical School, USA. In 2017 SPARK programs commenced at Monash University and in 2018 at the Univ. of Melbourne where I have facilitated both programs. In 2018 I was appointed as the regional director for SPARK Oceania.

In 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I together with colleagues in the USA developed a passive immunization approach to help reduce the numbers of infections and mortality caused by this virus. Several institutions and companies from around the world participated and the work was highlighted in “Science” amongst other journals and in the media. In 2023 a cohort of 6 projects from the University of Sydney started the two-year SPARK program and another cohort will commence in 2026. Other Australian Universities are currently making plans to commence SPARK programs in 2025/2026. Apart from the above, I have successfully run 40 short Bioinnovation & Entrepreneurship courses (1-2 weeks) in institutions around the world including UTS, Stanford, Technion, University of Tokyo to name a few. This course equips students and academic researchers (up to Professor) with the knowledge and skills to translate and commercialise their research. I am currently running courses at the University of Adelaide, University of Birmingham, UK, with others planned for the future both nationally and internationally. I am committed to helping researchers make an impact on the lives of patients and to improve human health.

All welcome!