Apocrypha

It's Alive

Dr Patrizia Washer is currently Business Development Manager for a biotechnology management and commercialisation company in Perth, Gateway Capital Limited. Patrizia has over 5 years of experience in managing and commercialising R&D in medical and agricultural biotechnology. BSc from UWA in Microbiology in 1990. BSc (Honours 1) at UWA that covered understanding the early development of a type of immune cells (T cells), by studying leukaemia and the factors that go wrong in these cancers to cause mutations in these early T cells. PhD at UWA (1997) on a thesis that covered the role of a cancer-causing gene (Known as HOX-11) in childhood T-cell leukaemias. This gene, HOX-11, is a member of a family of genes known as homeobox genes, which are highly conserved in evolution and have been found in the phylogenetic tree to be conserved all the way to Drosophila. Patrizia is experienced in cell culture of bacteria, mammalian cells and plant tissue culture; DNA cloning, construction of genomic libraries using viral and bacterial vectors; DNA, RNA, protein extraction and gene sequencing.

In 1999, she began working in the commercial sector as manager of an agricultural diagnostic company, Biotest Pty Ltd based at Murdoch University in Perth. In 2001, Patrizia co-founded a consulting company in the biotech sector and moved into technology commercialisation for one of the largest university technology transfer companies in Australasia, Auckland UniServices Limited, based in New Zealand. Patrizia was at UniServices for 3 years as Business Manager of biotechnology managing the commercialisation of research within the life sciences for The University of Auckland. She negotiated numerous commercial research contracts and agreements with international biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Her role also included the management and business development of a spin-out cancer therapeutics company, Proacta Therapeutics Limited, which raised US$8 million seed funding in June 2004 from a consortium of Australian/New Zealand venture capitalists and two large pharmaceutical companies.