Dr Paul Watt

Beginning his scientific career at The University of Western Australia (UWA), Dr Paul Watt went on to complete his PhD in Biochemistry (Molecular Biology) at the University Of Oxford. He was then awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University, followed by two further Fellowships - one with the UK's Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the second at Linacre College, Oxford.

Dr Watt has changed fields several times, publishing consistently throughout his career. He is an inventor on multiple patent applications (including several granted US patents) and has embraced the importance of commercialising Australian biotechnology. He was the founder of the start-up venture InfaMed Ltd., which commercialised a drug delivery device he developed for asthmatic children. InfaMed was acquired by Visiomed Group Ltd, of which Dr Watt is a non-executive director. Approximately 10,000 Funhalers have been sold to distributors in Australia, regulatory approval has been received with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the device is now also CE-marked for sale into Europe.

Now based at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (ICHR), Dr Watt is an ICHR Honorary Research Fellow and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at UWA. He has developed a new drug-screening platform, which has excited interest from several international biotechnology companies. The technology has been spun-off into the start-up venture Phylogica Ltd, of which he is Scientific Director. In recognition of his commercial achievements, Dr Watt was awarded the Curtin University Commendation prize at the 40-under-40 awards in 2003.

Dr Watt is now leading an NRP project to identify peptides that reduce secondary cell death following traumatic brain injury and stroke.

Current NRP (Chief) Co-investigators:
A/ Prof Adrian West, University of Tasmania
Dr Bruno Meloni, Centre for Neuromuscular & Neuological Disorders
Dr Nadia Milech, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research