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SYNTHESISING NEW MATERIALS
University of Sydney science graduate and entrepreneur Adjunct Professor Alison Todd has worked with her SpeeDx co-founder Dr Elisa Mokany for almost two decades. Todd and Mokany started out as colleagues at Johnson & Johnson as well as supervisor and PhD student at UNSW. With 120 patents to her name and 40 pending, Todd is primarily an inventor, but she says their skillsets overlap. Together, they invented and patented the PlexZyme platform technology for genetic analysis. When Johnson & Johnson fell prey to the global financial crisis, Todd and Mokany negotiated the assignment of their technology and founded SpeeDx to take it to market. This year, the pair’s groundbreaking medical diagnostic technology earned them the Clunies Ross Award for Innovation. PlexZyme drives the diagnostic tests developed by SpeeDx that detect both the organism causing an infection and its antibiotic resistance status, allowing doctors to tailor treatment to each patient. In a study of sexually transmitted infections caused by Mycoplasma genitalium, using SpeeDx diagnostics to guide treatment increased cure rates from 40% to 93%. Both founders are actively involved in the Australian university community, mentoring the next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs. Over 20 years, Todd has supervised many higher degree students, delivering research for SpeeDx while giving the students a grounding in both industry and academia. “It’s very hard to get any basic research done in a busy company that is pumping out products,” Todd says.
Dr Michael Dong Han Seo has developed a process to convert waste biomass into a unique form of graphene with important applications in water treatment. Patented as ‘GraphAir’, the concept sprang from Seo’s PhD research at the University of Sydney, where he investigated ways of transforming waste oil products into graphene, a unique material consisting of a single atomic layer of carbon. Graphene has many useful applications, including as supercapacitor electrodes. Seo later duplicated the oil-to-graphene transformation using thermal processing at CSIRO, patenting the process in Australia and China. Seo’s thermally synthesised graphene contains unique nano-channels, which only allow water to pass through. This means it can be used to purify contaminated water, desalinate seawater or separate water from oil. What’s more, the material’s surface doesn’t become clogged – no matter how contaminated the water. The research led to two publications in the journal Nature Communications. Now at UTS, Seo is developing a robust membrane and simple treatment process to improve the way we recycle water and tackle future water shortages. Seo says his Australian university science education equipped him with a systematic thinking process and the curiosity to think about why things happen. — Nadine Cranenburgh
ADJUNCT PROF ALISON TODD
DR MICHAEL DONG HAN SEO
RE-INVENTING MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS
Bachelor of Science (Hons) & PhD, University of Sydney
Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, SpeeDx
DR ELISA MOKANY Bachelor of Advanced Science & PhD, UNSW
Founder & Chief Technical Officer, SpeeDx
Bachelor of Science/ Commerce (Hons) & PhD, University of Sydney
Postdoctoral Fellow, CSIRO
Research Scientist, CSIRO
Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UTS
NOV 2020
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