PharmaTelevision - PlantBio Trust: Balancing Global Opportunities and Local Needs in South Africa

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Video title: PlantBio Trust: Balancing Global Opportunities and Local Needs in South Africa

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In This Episode:

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In this episode of PharmaTelevision News Review, Fintan Walton talks with Antonio Llobell, CEO at PlantbBio Trust.

Filmed at AusBiotech 2009, they discuss:

• how biotech has developed recently in South Africa
• innovation as one of South Africa's primary objectives
• bridging the gap between research and commercialisation
• what's profitable in South Africa
• South Africa as the gateway into the mainland
• the flourishing relationship between South Africa and Australia

Full video transcripts are available with PharmaTelevision Premium Content. Click here to buy a subscription or sign up for a 14 day free trial.

how biotech has developed recently in South Africa

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaTelevision news review here in Melbourne, Australia. On this show I've got Antonio Llobell, who is the CEO of a company called PlantBio Trust based in South Africa. Welcome to the show.

Antonio Llobell:

Thank you Fintan Walton.

Fintan Walton:

Antonio Llobell, you're from South Africa and you're in the area of biotech, could you let us know little bit more about what's actually happening in biotech in South Africa and in particular what we were looking at is what's really happened in the last 15-years?

Antonio Llobell:

I am not sure about the last 15-years, but can give you an idea of what has happened in the past probably five to seven-years, government decided that biotech is an essential rather for economy development in the country and in 2001 there was implementation of national biotech strategy where the government decided to put in place specific innovation centres to develop the biotech sector and some of them have been placed in different regions and some of them have national school and the sectors basically to look at have been human health bioprocessing and agro-biotec.

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Antonio Llobell

Chief Executive Officer

Antonio Llobell is the Chief Executive Officer of PlantBio Trust, having joined in April 2004 as the Chief Operations Officer. Antonio Llobell has played and integral role in building the PlantBio team and growing the portfolio of projects funded by the trust. He has been instrumental in establishing the wide base of strategic initiatives, both locally and internationally. With more than 12 years of senior management experience in research in the plant and microbial biotechnology field, Antonio Llobell was a professor of Plant Biotechnology at the African Centre for Crop Improvement, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg before joining PlantBio . He has also been a Professor Titular at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, University of Seville and CSIC Spain. Antonio Llobell has a strong entrepreneurial background and was co-founder and scientific consultant in Newbiotechnic, S.A. (NBT), a biotech company specializing in the development of applications for the agri-food and industrial sectors, and in NBT Diagen, S.A., a biotech company commercializing molecular diagnosis services for the medical sector. Antonio Llobell has published more than sixty scientific articles in books and first rated peer-reviewed international journals and more than one hundred communications to national and international congresses. He has also been referee for a number of international journals and is the inventor of six Spanish patent applications and four international patent applications on anti-fungal genes and proteins, gene expression systems and biocontrol formulations.

PlantBio Trust

PlantBio Trust is a National Innovation Centre for Plant Biotechnology, initiated by the Department of Science and Technology as part of the National Biotechnology Strategy for South Africa. PlantBio Trust was registered on the 25th March 2004 and officially launched on the 12th October 2004. To date PlantBio has received Non Profit Organization status and our NPO Registration Number is 041-184 and has a vision To serve and lead South Africa towards developing a sustainable Plant Biotechnology sector that is competitive and world class in specific areas and address poverty alleviation. PlantBio has identified the following areas of strategic importance 1. Focus Areas Biocontrol/Biofertilization, Plant Breeding, In vitro Propagation, Plant Transformation and Genomics. 2. Thematic Areas Food Security/Poverty Alleviation Biofuels and Industrial Crops Exploitation of South African Bio-resources Environmentally Friendly Agriculture Technology Platforms Genomics and Proteomics Biosafety In vitro propagation