SASM, Biotechnology Innovation Centres, Innovation Fund host 2009 Bio2Biz Conference

About 600 delegates are expected to attend the sixth Bio2Biz conference at the Durban International Convention Centre from 20 - 23 September 2009, according to Dr Antonio Llobell, the chief executive officer of the Pietermaritzburg-based PlantBio.

PlantBio, with the Durban based LIFElab are organising this year's conference. PlantBio Trust, LIFElab, Cape Biotech Trust, BioPAD, the Innovation Fund and eGoli BIO are the partners in the Bio2Biz SA company which organises and facilitates the annual conference and exhibition. First held in 2004, the conference has rotated between Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape.

“It is a forum where all stakeholders in the biotech industry can come together, network, collaborate and form strategic partnerships as well as keep up to date with international developments in the industry,” said PlantBio marketing and communications manager, Helen Hingle.

"Biotechnology is a powerful tool. Biotechnology can help South African farmers compete in a rapidly changing world without causing damage to the environment using biocontrol technologies instead of chemical pesticides, for example," said the Spanish-born Llobell. He pointed out that biofuels were already making inroads on fossil fuels, another example of biotechnology in action. PlantBio, which, as its name suggests, concentrates on the green and growing side of biotech, was also involved in protecting and exploiting centuries of traditional knowledge regarding South Africa's famed biodiversity through the development of intellectual property rights.

"Biotechnology is not a magic bullet," explained another of the conference hosts, Dr Blessed Okole, the chief executive officer of LIFElab, a government-funded biotechnology innovation centre based in Cato Manor, Durban, which focuses more on human health and bioprocessing.

"But in the long run, we will combat disease outbreaks like swine flu and drug-resistant tuberculosis through biotechnology. As these viruses and microbes mutate and evolve, South African scientists must come up with innovative, cost-effective and creative new ways to combat the enemy," Okole concluded.

"It is important that Africa develops its own biotechnology workforce and businesses, its own bio-pharmaceutical industry, because we don't want to be reliant on donors or companies from other parts of the world, where they might have different priorities," said Okole, who has also worked in biosciences at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and chemical company AECI. He pointed out that South Africa now imports vaccines from overseas when we have facilities in the country that can manufacture these vaccines.

But scientists also know how to have a good time, noted Okole. He said the strenuous round of seminars after the official start on Sunday, 20 September and running until Wednesday, 23 September will be broken up with dinner and an Abba/Queen musical tribute at the 470-seater Barnyard theatre in Gateway mall in Umhlanga Rocks and a banquet at the Sibaya Casino on Durban's north coast.

Members of the South African Society for Microbiology (SASM), a Durban-based scientific academic organisation, are looking forward to September's first Bio2Biz merger of the ivory tower and the office boardroom.

The microbiology society's president, professor Suren Singh, who heads the biotechnology and food technology department at the Durban University of Technology, is delighted with the partnership.

"We joined forces with Bio2Biz because I felt it was important to merge the two sides to get the best of both worlds, hardcore science and science-in-action, business science," said Durban born-and-bred Professor Singh. It also provides an excellent opportunity for our budding scientists at Honours, Masters and Doctoral levels, from all universities across South Africa to present their research findings and network with entrepreneurs and a wealth of international scientists.

"From our side, you get scientists who spend most of their time in the lab. In Durban they will get a good overview of applied science, applied technology," said Singh, who noted that SASM is part of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, forming a global 'biotech knowledge bank'.

Sponsors for September's Bio2Biz conference include the Southern African intellectual property specialist law firm Adams and Adams, Bruker South Africa, Claris Laboratory supplies and the nationwide information technology firm First Technology, said Clermont-born Kagiso Ntanga, marketing and communications manager of Lifelab. Prospective sponsors can contact her by email on or phone 031 2616427 and 082 808 9180.

Exhibitors already confirmed for September's conference include many southern African laboratory equipment manufacturers such as Davies Diagnostics, Microsep, Lasec, Polychem, Scientific group and Whitehead Scientific (WhiteSci). Prospective exhibitors can contact Helen Hingle for more details by emailing or phone the Pietermaritzburg office at 033 8461989 or 072 686 9070.

To register for the conference go to www.bio2biz.org.