Quarterly Message from the CEO: Building momentum together
As we reach the middle of 2026, I am incredibly proud of the momentum building within the SMART CRC and across our partner and associates network.
Over the past quarter, we have continued to strengthen our national footprint, meeting with partners and associates across research and industry.
In New South Wales, we visited the University of Wollongong, meeting with academic leaders working on rare diseases, with a focus on Motor Neurone Disease (MND). We also visited the Innovation Campus, the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) and the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute. I look forward to chairing the next AusBiotech Advisory Group in July and representing the CRC community in discussions around regenerative therapies.
In Victorian we were pleased to participate in the ARMI Strategy 2030 launch at Monash University. We spent time with RMIT, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and industry leaders including Cell Therapies Pty Ltd and Skin2Neuron.
In South Australia, we held our Quarterly Showcase event and welcomed more than 80 partners and associates to the National Wine Centre of Australia at the Adelaide University. We are also working with Dr Joy Rathjen and key partners including AusHealth, The Hospital Research Foundation Group, UniSA, and SA Pathology on a practical roadmap for coordinated growth in capability, infrastructure, and translation within South Australia.
In Western Australia, we were fortunate to attend AusMedtech Conference 2026 which helped us understand the opportunities and challenges facing Australia’s biotech sector. We also enjoyed our time at the Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) conference where SMART CRC Chief Operating Officer Dr Sarah Costanzo presented her insights on CRC development and our Chair Dr Leanna Read joined a panel on Australia’s R&D system. Congratulations to Chief Development Officer Isaac Coonan on his election as a non-executive director of CRA.
In Queensland, we continue to actively support workforce development and sector growth and we were proud to partner with the BridgeTech Program at QUT. We also joined the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation’s 40th Anniversary Jacaranda Ball to reinforce our strong ties to the clinical community and our commitment to advancing patient outcomes through collaboration.
Celebrating our partners and associates
It is particularly exciting to see our partners and associates achieving significant milestones. Just some from the last few months include:
- Congratulations to Cell Therapies Pty Ltd and Skin2Neuron on their manufacturing agreement to support Phase 1 clinical trials targeting Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
- We are delighted to be partnering with PolyNovo Limited to advance its regenerative therapies in serious would treatment. Their project, testing a new lab-grown skin replacement to treat serious wounds using PolyNovo’s synthetic material combined with a patient’s own cells is an example of the strength and potential of Australia’s end-to-end pipeline.
- We are proud to congratulate the Celleo Biotech team on the delivery of the Larkem® V40- a scalable, automated cell therapy formulate and fill solution, representing innovation needed within our sector to help scale regenerative therapies.
These achievements highlight what is possible when collaboration, capability, and purpose align. We are always keen to share updates from our network.
Looking Ahead
We look forward to building on this momentum in the months ahead, particularly at our Annual Conference in October, which will be our flagship event held at the Gold Coast as a Satellite Event to the AusBiotech International Conference 2026.
We are also excited to attend this year’s BIO International Convention 2026 in San Diego. Where we will join delegations from Queensland, Victoria and NSW to represent the SMART CRC as an enabler of international investment and collaboration across Australia’s regenerative therapies sector.