Dr Garth Cooper

Chief Scientific Officer, PROTEMIX INC

Professor Garth Cooper, a graduate of biochemistry, chemistry and in medicine first became interested in diabetes in 1980 while working at the Auckland Hospital Diabetes Clinic. He was awarded a Nuffield Medical Fellowship and a Girdler's Fellowship for doctoral studies in biochemistry and molecular biology at University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he discovered the hormone amylin, developed amylin-replacement therapy for diabetes using the engineered hormone symlin, and subsequently founded the NASDAQ-listed US biopharmaceutical company, Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

He returned to New Zealand in 1992 to a joint appointment at the University of Auckland in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine. His research focus has been on understanding the molecular basis of metabolic processes, by discovery of novel peptide hormones and proteins (proteomics) followed by detailed functional analysis of purified proteins in cellular and whole animal models, and then in human systems.

Expected outcomes from this process include construction of new peptide-based drugs; proteins with functions engineered to improve their pharmaceutical performance.

He is listed as inventor on more than 40 US and European patents, and has pioneered the development of proteomics in New Zealand. He is speaking at Innovate in his capacity as the Chief Scientific Officer of Protemix Inc., an Auckland-based biopharmaceutical corporation.