November 6, 2025 • 38 mins
Tessara Therapeutics, a pioneering biotech start-up based in Melbourne, has developed a platform which creates 3D human brain models using stem cells.
Its RealBrain technology generates reproducible, scalable micro-tissues that mimic the complexity of the human brain. Ready to accelerate neural drug discovery – without using animal models.
From working with CSIRO’s Kickstart program, receiving a CRC-P grant with Xylo Bio, and the University of Sydney to develop neuroplastogens to research the treatment of addiction disorders and inking a new agreement with Swiss based InSphero, Tessara Therapeutics is helping to unlock human neuroscience.
Joining us on the MTPConnect podcast is Tessara Therapeutics CEO and Managing Director, Dr Christos Papadimitriou to tell us more about their innovation to accelerate neural drug discovery and their plans to take this technology global.
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Episode Transcript
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Natalie Vella (00:01):
This is the MTP Connect podcast, connecting you
with the people behind thelife-saving innovations driving
Australia's growing lifesciences sector from bench to
bedside for better health andwell-being.
MTP Connect acknowledges thetraditional owners of country
that this podcast is recorded onand recognises that Aboriginal
(00:22):
and Torres Strait Islanderpeoples are Australia's first
storytellers and the holders offirst science knowledge.
Caroline Duell (00:33):
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Caroline Duell.
Today we're catching up withTessara Therapeutics, a
pioneering biotech startup basedin Melbourne, which has
developed a platform to create3D human brain models using stem
cells.
Its real brain technologygenerates reproducible, scalable
microtissues that mimic thecomplexity of the human brain,
(00:57):
ready to accelerate neural drugdiscovery without using animal
models.
From working with CSIRO'sKickstart program, receiving a
CRC-P grant with Xylo and theUniversity of Sydney to research
the treatment of addictiondisorders, and inking a new
agreement with a Swiss-basedInsphero, Tessara Therapeutics
(01:17):
is helping to unlock humanneuroscience.
Here to tell us more abouttheir global ambitions is
Tessara Therapeutics CEO andManaging Director, Dr.
Christos Papadimitriou.
Welcome to the podcast,Christos.
It's great to have you on theshow.
Dr Christos Papadimitrio (01:34):
Thanks for inviting me.
Caroline Duell (01:38):
Tell us a little bit about your background.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (01:40):
So, yeah, I was born and raised in
Greece.
I guess the the main driver forme to go into uh life sciences
in general and research was mydad uh had a form of uh
degenerative disease, and thatwas the inspiration for me to to
go into research in lifesciences and um in particular
(02:03):
regenerative therapy uh andregenerative medicine, which is
uh the a part of medicine thatthat really tries to understand
how we can treat or replacedamaged tissue to have a
healthier life.
So you're talking aboutdiseases like Alzheimer's that's
Alzheimer's, uh likeParkinson's disease, but also um
(02:29):
uh accidents like spinal cordaccidents, that they also form
some type of um, let's say abarrier of regeneration, given
that the neural tissue is uh itcannot really regenerate.
So uh working with uh smarttools that later in my career
(02:50):
they would be fundamental forwhat we do now at Tesara, uh
tools like the use ofbiomaterials to modulate the
immune system or to modulate howuh neurons and are behaving and
how they are regenerated ornot, that was fundamental in my
(03:11):
career.
Caroline Duell (03:12):
And you mix that with biomedical engineering,
and you've got a veryinteresting skill set, Christos,
in terms of this new I wouldcall regenerative medicine, it's
a new frontier.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (03:23):
It is a combination, my background of
of medical studies as well, andand engineering, which is
tissue engineering as well, thatum teach me or taught me how to
um uh how to manipulate uh uhhuman cells and make them have
the uh the differentiation orthe progression that someone
(03:47):
wants to uh to drive the cellstowards, but also uh electronics
and um even uh computersciences like coding and
developing algorithms that havealso been very influential in my
career as well.
Caroline Duell (04:02):
So this is you know big dreams and big
ambitions, really.
This passion has has broughtyou to Tesara Therapeutics.
Tell us about the mission ofthis company that you're leading
at the moment.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (04:16):
We established the Sarah
Therapeutics with um uh twoother co-founders, Christopher
Boyer and Christian uh Tuli.
And the mission of the companyum is to develop a platform that
can really uh solve severalexisting problems when it comes
to to therapies for forneuroscience.
(04:37):
So the the platform is based onum lab-grown human neural
tissue.
So um uh we use human neuralstem cells and biomaterials, uh,
talking to tissue engineeringbefore making a reference.
(04:58):
So when we mix these twocomponents together, we uh
basically trick the cells, thethe human neural uh stem cells,
to believe that they are insidethe human brain.
And this uh this technologyhelps them to um to start
producing proteins and all theuh microenvironment necessary uh
(05:21):
to build actual neural tissue.
These are what we call humanmini-brains.
Of course, these neuralmicrotissues they do not
correspond to the whole brainfunction, it is uh just a model
that uh basically correlates tothe cortical region of the human
brain.
The brain has many differentparts for creating uh hormones,
(05:46):
for uh specific memory parts,for vision.
It's it's such a complex organ.
Um, what we're trying to dowith this with this technology
that we've developed uh to sella therapeutics is to um create a
very good um analog or test bedfor for therapies when it comes
(06:08):
to to neuroscience.
And um yeah, neurologicaldiseases uh like Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's and others have beenimpacting millions of people.
As a matter of fact, I in a inuh in a study that was published
uh in Lancet in 2024, umneurological conditions was now
(06:29):
the leading cause of disabilityand ill health um globally, um
more than um um cancer and andmore than uh cardiovascular uh
diseases.
Over the last um uh 30 years orso, um more than 96 percent of
drugs uh fail in clinical trialsuh when it comes to
(06:52):
neurodegenerative diseases andneuroscience therapeutics.
And uh more than 70 percent ofthis failure, um, it really goes
back to the early drugdiscovery.
Uh the literature but alsopractical experience points to
the fact that when researchersare using not the right models
(07:12):
to discover and to validate thetargets, that leads to um an
incorrect decision of the assetsthat they can um then continue
the drug development pathway.
So if someone makes a mistakeat the early stages of drug
discovery or it's not the rightasset, this mistake can then um
(07:36):
progress and can lead tosignificant failures down the
track.
So, what we're trying to dowith our technology is to um uh
develop new insights.
So we have a technology thatcomes much closer to the human
um physiology and uh how adisease may develop in a in a
human setup.
So we are able to apply thistechnology at the earlier stages
(07:59):
of drug development andbasically identify the the
acids, but hopefully also laterin clinical trials.
So we have these micro tissueslive in a uh in a 96-well plane,
it has multiple wells, so youcan imagine one uh just for the
sake of this discussion, I willcall them mini-brains, one
(08:22):
mini-brain in every well whereum uh they grow inside a
specific um uh formulation ofmedia to provide nutrients.
And in this well, we are alsoum adding the uh the therapeutic
compounds, the experimentaltreatments.
And these treatments they havean effect on how these micro
(08:44):
tissues are growing, how thecells and the neurons are
changing, and then we can umevaluate uh what is the effect
of this treatment when it comesto the neural networking, to
what is their effect onneurotransmission and several
other parameters.
So, with one tool, ourmini-brains, we can develop an
(09:06):
abundance of data.
We can what is the effect ofthe drug in the human neurons,
any combination of um of braincells.
Caroline Duell (09:17):
And what are you calling this technology?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (09:19):
It's it's actually the real brain
technology that we call it.
Caroline Duell (09:23):
So, how many of these you know, mini real brains
can you manufacture, you know,in a day?
Like, are we talking thousands?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (09:32):
So, what we call now uh mini-brain,
many people can also relate toum human brain organoids, uh,
that it's it's a form oforganotypic culture, again, in a
3D format, that they're tryingto again replicate the uh the
brain as an as an organ.
And this technology has been uhhas been used for hundreds of
(09:58):
labs around the world uh for afor more than a decade, but
there are some significantlimitations with uh technologies
like that in an academic setup.
And one of these limitations isthe scalability.
Um, there are severallimitations in creating such
organotypic cultures at scale,that has been a limiting factor
(10:20):
for their adoption as well.
When you have um an adoptionfrom the whole pharmaceutical
industry, you need to make surethat uh your, I call it a
product, this this technology,it is very important to be
consistent but also scalable toensure that the the data that
coming out of this technologyare the same.
(10:43):
No matter where you are in theworld, no matter who is doing
the assay, it needs to have thistype of um standards when it
comes to reproducibility andscalability.
And this is exactly where umwhat are the uh the barriers
that we are uh let's saybreaking with our technology.
(11:05):
Um because of the technologythat we have been using uh with
with the scaffold, we have theability to really create
thousands of these uhstructures, of these human
relevant structures every day.
Um, so it it was a very um avery long RD process that we had
(11:29):
at the SARA therapeutics tomake this technology um
compatible with automation.
So we use robotic automationthat can really uh create more
than hundreds of these uh microtissues in every two to three
minutes, and we can generatethousands of these every day if
(11:50):
necessary, and that allows us toreally develop a technology
that can be adopted at a globalscale for the pharmaceutical
industry, and this is what um wewant what we aspire to do as
the cellar therapeutics.
We're trying to develop atechnology that sets the gold
standards when it comes totesting in neuroscience
(12:12):
therapeutics, um, becauseanother um benefit that we can
provide with our technology, ifit is um uh predictive but also
scalable, we can uh set thebenchmarks of different
therapeutics and understand hownew um uh experimental drugs
(12:33):
perform against historical drugsthat they have been in the
market or not.
And that can be very valuableuh for the neuroscience uh uh
field in general.
Caroline Duell (12:44):
Where do the stem cells come from, the neural
stem cells?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (12:48):
Yeah, they are coming from um either
uh healthy donors or uh donorsthat they have a disease.
Uh Tessara is not theresponsible company to retrieve
these cells, although we we canif we want to.
There are some specificspecialized companies that we
(13:08):
are working with that um they dothis as a job to have all the
um ethics and the processesapproved from the FDA or the uh
regulatory framework of everyjurisdiction to collect um uh
cells either from uh from theskin or from blood, that then
(13:28):
they can turn into neural stemcells, and then we we use these
neural stem cells to uh yeahgenerate our micro tissue.
And that uh allows us to um togo one step closer to the actual
human clinical trials becausewhat we're also um trying to do
is to um collect um um cellsfrom patients that have um
(13:55):
different forms of Alzheimer'sdisease, I i and this is a very
simple term I'm using um fromdifferent genetic backgrounds
and different and sexes to tryand replicate what the clinical
trial is uh uh in a normalclinical trial setup with
patients, but in the lab.
(14:17):
So by collecting cells fromindividuals with different
genetic backgrounds, we cansomehow mimic this clinical
trial in this, as we said, theclinical trial in this concept,
where we create these uhmini-brains um from uh neurons
that they're coming fromindividuals that they have
(14:39):
different forms of Alzheimer'sdisease.
Caroline Duell (14:42):
And are you working with any drug discovery
companies in Australia?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (14:46):
We're working with um companies that
develop neurological assets inAustralia and also in the United
States mostly.
Um, so yes, there are um um uhlisted companies and unlisted
companies uh that uh are usingour technology to de-risk their
drug development pathway.
Uh because it's not only thede-risking by collecting human
(15:10):
relevant insight, but alsotrying to limit the use of
animal models when they are notnecessary in order to inform
your uh readouts, can helpcompanies accelerate their drug
development path.
So a relatively simple studycan take two to three years when
using animal models when itcomes to breeding the animals,
to get the information from theanimal models and all the
(15:32):
processes involved, and it'svery expensive.
And what it takes two years tocomplete in animal models, we
can do with our technology in acouple of months.
So, and at a fraction of thecost.
So companies are using usalready to de-risk and
accelerate their drugdevelopment pathway.
Caroline Duell (15:53):
So tell us about the US market and obviously
with customers in the US, what'sbeen the response, uh, interest
there in your technology?
And how often do you have to goto the States to meet with your
customers and potentialcustomers?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (16:07):
Uh, we're a relatively new company,
so we we started uh operationsin 2020, but I think um we had a
very good trajectory since ittook us from concept to revenue
about four years.
So we started generatingrevenue in um 2024.
So we're still a new companywhen it comes to
(16:29):
commercialization and we'restill expanding.
We have a small number ofcustomers, important ones.
And we have seen a significantchange in in the demand of our
technology um after the FDAmodernization act, where they um
uh passed uh uh a law that theyended a blanket rule that um no
(16:56):
company, no sponsor could startclinical trials without having
animal models.
So that was a mandate.
This mandate doesn't existanymore, which means companies
can initiate clinical trials,testing uh a therapeutic um
candidate in humans even withoutusing animal models.
(17:17):
And um after this uh thischange in the in the
legislation, there are severalother changes that have
happened, and the FDA has uhresponded into these changes um
um quickly, I would say.
And very recently, uh just uhin April this year, um they
(17:39):
developed a specific roadmap forphasing out the use of animal
models in in general.
So, what FDA is trying to do isin a few years' time, the use
of animal models would be anexception rather than the rule.
Uh, because new technologieslike ours, they're more
human-relevant, more predictive,and they can assess many of
(18:02):
information that we get fromanimal models uh faster and more
reliably and cheaper as well.
So we're trying as a company tocreate stronger awareness uh of
what we do in the US.
As I mentioned, we are a smallcompany, and unfortunately, Sara
and many, many other companiesare um well underfunded.
(18:24):
Um, well underfunded.
So we are trying to leverage umbigger partners um and run as
lean operations as possible herein Australia in order to raise
awareness of our products.
So, as part of these um uh ofthese strategies are recent
(18:45):
agreement and collaboration withuh nSphero , which is a
Swiss-based company.
Yeah, um and InSphero is is isa remarkable company and uh with
a remarkable CEO, I considerthem as the architects of human
relevant in vitro cultures.
Uh they they started with um uhliver, human micro tissues, and
(19:08):
then they uh developed um uhcancer models uh and and and
other models as well that reallyum help the risk development
programs, uh like Tesara, uh,for example.
And uh InSfiro is is thelargest uh company with
specialization in scalable um 3Dhuman relevant in vitro
(19:31):
technology.
So working with a company likeInSfiro um helps us to um to
have a bigger footprint thanwhat we have because we work as
partners and we havetechnologies that can complement
each other.
Caroline Duell (19:44):
Well, congratulations on that
distribution agreement withInSfiro.
That is major news for you.
And watch this space, I think.
Um another um interestingannouncement that from late last
year was that you were part ofa Cooperative Research Centers
projects grant with Silo and theUniversity of Sydney.
(20:05):
That's a major project that youyou're part of or leading.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (20:09):
It is indeed something uh very very
close to my heart because again,we are creating new new science
there.
It's um something that, in myknowledge, hasn't been done
before uh using organotypiccultures to uh to get into this
space.
And to be more specific, whatum the grant that we managed to
(20:30):
get together with Silo and theUniversity of Sydney is to
develop um a framework of um anda pipeline where we uh uh
Tesara is screening a list ofcompounds um originally sourced
from xylo that they have uh thatthey have developed through
(20:52):
their proprietary technologies,and then develop um new models
of um drug abuse andspecifically methamphetamine
abuse.
So we are entering um the stageof like mental health um
sector, uh, so to develop an invitro model to assess um
(21:15):
addiction and to assess how umnew uh new therapeutic
candidates can uh can preventaddiction or can be used to help
people with addiction when itcomes to uh uh yeah illegal
drugs like methamphetamine.
So we are bringing togetherexpertise um like our technology
(21:38):
that, as I mentioned, wedevelop a a whole new kind of of
a disease model for thisprogram.
Uh the knowledge of um the andthe expertise of silo developing
some novel neuroplastogens, andI will explain later what that
is, and also the expertise ofthe University of Um of Sydney,
(22:01):
that they have developed someanimal models as well to test
the the reactions and thebehavioral components that of
course we cannot test with withour technology, and that can be
used as uh let's say a uh avalidation of our findings.
So, what we are trying to do inthese um uh in this ground is
(22:24):
to identify therapeuticcomponents that can change the
neural networking of the humanbrain.
So we want to increase neuralplasticity in the human brain
and create new connectionsbecause the research so far
suggests that by by doing that,you are um helping a specific
(22:46):
set of individuals to be um uhto accept new new new treatments
and new learnings as well.
So um, together with umspecific programs uh designed to
help people with addiction andwith administration of such uh
therapeutic compounds, um, wereally believe that we can make
(23:11):
a significant difference in thelife of this um of these people
and change their uh addictionprofile.
And I have to say, I'm notexpert in that field, so I
apologize in advance if I saysomething um inappropriate
there.
Um, but the good thing aboutthe Sarah is that um um we have
(23:31):
already developed some really,really good and promising
results that we've never seenbefore, which indicates that we
can really see this effect ofaddiction um that we know from
humans when we expose ourtechnology to uh to to drugs
like methamphetamine, which isamazing.
Caroline Duell (23:54):
It it's so you can see it's sort of in the test
tube, you can see thisinteraction of addiction or the
cells, you know, that we have todo it.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (24:02):
So we can see we can already see um
elements of what now it happensin the in the human networking,
how the neurons are dhammasedand they decrease their ability
to communicate with otherneurons.
Caroline Duell (24:16):
Really?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (24:16):
Um, and yeah, it is something that
hasn't been seen before, in inmy knowledge, and we're really,
really excited about thisframework.
And as part of the CRCPprogram, and I guess that's
important for our industry, isthat after the program we could
use this this pipeline, thisframework that we develop for
(24:38):
for all the other companies aswell.
So it is really a technologythat hopefully can elevate the
the translation of Australianresearch and technologies to to
help this program um and theproblem which could be expanded
to to it could be expanded toopioid crisis and and other
issues when it comes to um uh uhto to problems in relation to
(25:04):
addiction.
Caroline Duell (25:05):
Yes, and incredible.
And you know, as we know, thethe issue of drug addiction from
everything from fentanyl tomethamphetamine is totally
changing communities around theworld.
Can you just explain what areneuroplastigens?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (25:22):
Yeah, it um the neuroplastigens is is
exactly what I mentionedbefore.
There are specific classes ofcompounds that their main uh job
would be to change the theneural networking, to promote
the plasticity inside the brain,to to create new connections
between neurons that they arefunctional as well.
(25:44):
And uh together with this,there are several changes in the
human brain because that allowsuh the brain to learn faster,
better.
In some cases, it can helpchange the uh neuroinflammatory
profile as well by usingtherapeutic candidates that can
uh again help the addict brainto perform better in combination
(26:09):
with other behavioraltreatments.
And again, I'm not expert intoall the treatments when it comes
to addiction, but in my in myunderstanding, and what we want
to achieve is, as I mentioned,these therapeutic compounds to
be in addition to um specificbehavioral training and and and
(26:29):
um guidance that these peoplewill get from other services,
not just by the uh the use of uhtherapeutic compounds.
Caroline Duell (26:40):
And how long is this CRC project for?
Is it a couple of years?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (26:44):
For three years.
It is for three years, yeah.
Caroline Duell (26:46):
Absolutely fascinating.
Looking into the science ofaddiction at a test tube level,
at that neuron level, must bemind-blowing.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (26:54):
It is, it is, and and soon we we
plan to to launch uhready-to-use uh platforms or
plates for mini-brains.
What that means is that so farall the work and revenue we have
generated is by providingin-house drug screening services
to uh to companies.
(27:16):
But now we're developing uh aprogram or a product that we can
um distribute this type ofplates, 96 well plates or 34
well plates, with themini-brains inside that they're
leaving.
And and companies can will goin the near future in our
website or through ourdistributors to order these
(27:37):
mini-brains so they can havethem in their lab and do a
variety of testing.
And we really help that thiswill um uh we think that this
will help the translation ofresearch in Australia but also
um globally and uh helpneuroscience innovators
everywhere to progress theirprogram because if we want to
(28:01):
have um a transformationalchange into uh the development
of therapeutics forneurodegenerative diseases, we
need to solve this problemcollectively.
So we can use all the brainpower in the world uh available,
and many smart people in theUS, in Europe, in Australia uh
(28:22):
to use the best tools and findproblems and therapies for
neurodegenerative diseases.
So we we want to create thisenabling platform to raise the
the standards and the successesof clinical trials.
Caroline Duell (28:39):
How do you transport this material?
Um, does it have to berefrigerated?
How long is the lifespan ofthese mini brains in this sort
of manufacturing device?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (28:49):
We are at the last stages of RD,
and I cannot reveal all theinformation, but uh most likely
we will not need uh uh coldchain solutions to transport
these micro tissues, which makesit very simple for us and
inexpensive as well for for thecustomers of our uh technology.
(29:10):
And once the customers umreceive our micro tissues, they
can stay in their labs formonths and months to do to
studies chronic exposure uh uhstudies and assess the uh uh
yeah how effective their umexperimental drugs are.
Uh but also what we are veryexcited about, and I'm again I'm
(29:34):
going even further in thefuture, what's what we want to
do, having the ability to createsuch uh so many micro tissues
and literally have millions ofdata points, is we want to use
um, and I'm I'm using the termvaguely because there are many
different systems that can beused.
(29:55):
Uh, we want to use artificialintelligence AI to Combine an
abundance of data from safety,toxicity, electrophysiology, and
others to create a very strongpredictive model that it's going
to work together with ourmini-brains.
(30:16):
So we want to have the bestinput possible from a technology
like our mini-brains and usingthe right um data science and
artificial intelligence tocombine all this data that we
can get and uh really helpcompanies and the industry to uh
have a transformational growthwhen it comes to the development
(30:39):
of uh therapeutic candidatesthat they really have an effect
and uh potentially can helpmillions of people with um
neurodegenerative diseases.
Caroline Duell (30:50):
And all manufactured in Parkville?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (30:53):
Uh yes, that's right.
We are based at Jumar sinceDecember 2023.
Um, yeah, and we manufacturethat um here in Parkville.
Caroline Duell (31:03):
It's a great story, Christos.
And you worked early on in yourproduct development through the
CSIRO Kickstart program.
So, what would you say aboutcompanies thinking about
partnering or working with someof those types of incubator
programs?
How helpful was that?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (31:21):
Well, I can uh I can only say that
without the Kickstarter, perhapswe wouldn't be here today.
Uh working with CSIRO and uhand the team there in the uh uh
biomaterials team um and thebiology team and the kickstart
program was fundamental becausethe the company just started
(31:44):
with with a with a concept andan idea that we shared with
CSIRO, and they made this idea areality, working together to
develop our our biomaterials,composition of matter, and and
anything else was wasfundamental, and then to develop
(32:06):
the the processes that thesebiomaterials can be um
synthesized at scale.
This is really uh fundamentalto have consistent manufacturing
at scale and CSIRO was uh yeah,critical for that, critical.
And the Kickstarter programhelped us to do that because we
(32:26):
literally had no money.
I was not working, I quit myjob.
Uh the job I had, I said, okay,this is it.
I'm making the sellertherapeutics, is going to happen
or not.
So we're very fortunate that wefound an investor that wrote us
this um 50,000 check, let'ssay, in the beginning, and we
(32:49):
used that directly for the CSIROKickstarter program to double
that that money and yeah, uhcreate or materials.
Yes, that's that's how itstarted.
Caroline Duell (33:01):
Very much an Australian-born innovation
developed here and manufacturedhere, which is a fantastic story
because you are a startup, andas you've said, it is very
difficult to get funding, it'svery difficult to get investment
at that early stage.
Just a fantastic result foryou.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (33:20):
I I think it is, and it's a good
Australian story and technologythat can really go global.
We had minimal support from umgovernment initiatives or state
initiatives in order to do that,no matter how much we have been
we have been trying.
And our our one of our um goalsas well is to be a financial
(33:43):
contributor to the economy herein the ecosystem.
And to be honest, this has notbeen recognized almost at all,
or in at very, very minimal uhstates.
And um, yes, I would reallylike to see initiatives that
they help um companies like theSARA because we are not the only
ones, because um uh like theTessara, many other innovators
(34:07):
at Jumar in Victoria andeverywhere in Australia can can
really help um create newinnovations that Australia can
be proud of, and we can have asignificant part of the common
economy to be based in thesetype of innovations.
Caroline Duell (34:22):
Do you feel like investors in the US are are
more likely to go for a newexperimental type technology?
They're just more of a firstmover on that science.
Are we a bit cautious inAustralia?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (34:34):
In my humble opinion, yes.
Very, very cautious.
We do not celebrate risk, Ithink.
And I think we we can learnmore from the um the US
mentality that they theycelebrate risk, they celebrate
uh failure in some cases, um,because that is the mother of
(34:54):
all innovations.
And we can see how innovationnow is the driving force of
economy in in the US, from theservices businesses, the
software, artificialintelligence, and several other
components.
Innovation is what is drivingeconomic growth, in my opinion.
Um, and I think Australiareally needs to think hard on
(35:18):
that and create innovations withcompetitive advantages and
uniqueness to do that.
And we have seen also examplesof Australian innovations that
they have not been recognized inAustralia, but they did get
recognized in the US and nowthey're part of a of another
economy.
And although in newspapers andarticles we we call them
(35:40):
Australian innovations, they arenot anymore.
Caroline Duell (35:44):
Well, they're born here, but then they leave.
And they take you know the IPand the and the job
opportunities as well.
Dr Christos Papadimitr (35:51):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Caroline Duell (35:52):
It's a really interesting problem, I think,
that that the sector's facing interms of employment for uh for
scientists and for um biomedicalengineers.
Obviously, there's a hugeopportunity there around this
type of technology.
Dr Christos Papadim (36:06):
Absolutely.
There is a huge opportunity,and CSIRO also, again, uh it's a
fantastic organization.
Um, they created um a report acouple of years ago when it
comes to the development ofnon-animal technologies.
Uh, and we identified that thegrowth opportunity and the
financial opportunity ofAustralia alone in these
(36:27):
technologies alone can be morethan 1.5 billion of growth.
So we are talking a hugeopportunity here.
Um, new technologies, uh uh,new skills that they can be
developed uh from companies likeTessara.
Tessara is a is a tiny company.
Uh it's it's about eight peoplethat we have.
Um we we need more people, butwe also need more capital to
(36:51):
employ more people.
So we are trying to run a verylean operation and try to
achieve as much as possible.
But hopefully, um everythingthat we discussed, the changes
in the regulatory framework, thenew innovation that we develop
with the ready-to-use plates andthe artificial intelligence
components can help us grow ourbusiness through revenues, but
(37:12):
also becoming more attractive touh domestic and US investors um
to help us grow the businessand um create more uh uh uh
skilled uh experts that can helpthe Australia to grow as well.
Caroline Duell (37:29):
Well, it sounds like definitely the right time
for your real brain technologyand exciting times ahead.
We'll be watching withinterest, Christos, and we wish
you and the team all the best atTessara Therapeutics on
developing this amazingtechnology.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (37:47):
Thank you, Caroline.
I'm very um grateful for thisopportunity.
MTP Connect has been doing alsoa fantastic work um managing
development grants andopportunities that they provide
to biotech companies.
And I think it's a very strongcontributor to creating
opportunities for Australianbiotechs to thrive and grow and
(38:08):
again uh bounce above theirweight and be become globally
competitive.
So thank you for everything youdo as well.
Caroline Duell (38:15):
That was to Tessara Therapeutics CEO and
managing director, Dr.
Christos Papadimitriou,discussing their real-brain
technology.
You've been listening to theMTP Connect Podcast.
This podcast is produced on thelands of the Wurundjeri people
here in Nam, Melbourne.
(38:36):
Thanks for listening to theshow.
If you love what you've heard,share our podcast and follow us
to more.
Until next time.
This is the MTP Connect podcast, connecting you
with the people behind thelife-saving innovations driving
Australia's growing lifesciences sector from bench to
bedside for better health andwell-being.
MTP Connect acknowledges thetraditional owners of country
that this podcast is recorded onand recognises that Aboriginal
(00:22):
and Torres Strait Islanderpeoples are Australia's first
storytellers and the holders offirst science knowledge.
Caroline Duell (00:33):
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Caroline Duell.
Today we're catching up withTessara Therapeutics, a
pioneering biotech startup basedin Melbourne, which has
developed a platform to create3D human brain models using stem
cells.
Its real brain technologygenerates reproducible, scalable
microtissues that mimic thecomplexity of the human brain,
(00:57):
ready to accelerate neural drugdiscovery without using animal
models.
From working with CSIRO'sKickstart program, receiving a
CRC-P grant with Xylo and theUniversity of Sydney to research
the treatment of addictiondisorders, and inking a new
agreement with a Swiss-basedInsphero, Tessara Therapeutics
(01:17):
is helping to unlock humanneuroscience.
Here to tell us more abouttheir global ambitions is
Tessara Therapeutics CEO andManaging Director, Dr.
Christos Papadimitriou.
Welcome to the podcast,Christos.
It's great to have you on theshow.
Dr Christos Papadimitrio (01:34):
Thanks for inviting me.
Caroline Duell (01:38):
Tell us a little bit about your background.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (01:40):
So, yeah, I was born and raised in
Greece.
I guess the the main driver forme to go into uh life sciences
in general and research was mydad uh had a form of uh
degenerative disease, and thatwas the inspiration for me to to
go into research in lifesciences and um in particular
(02:03):
regenerative therapy uh andregenerative medicine, which is
uh the a part of medicine thatthat really tries to understand
how we can treat or replacedamaged tissue to have a
healthier life.
So you're talking aboutdiseases like Alzheimer's that's
Alzheimer's, uh likeParkinson's disease, but also um
(02:29):
uh accidents like spinal cordaccidents, that they also form
some type of um, let's say abarrier of regeneration, given
that the neural tissue is uh itcannot really regenerate.
So uh working with uh smarttools that later in my career
(02:50):
they would be fundamental forwhat we do now at Tesara, uh
tools like the use ofbiomaterials to modulate the
immune system or to modulate howuh neurons and are behaving and
how they are regenerated ornot, that was fundamental in my
(03:11):
career.
Caroline Duell (03:12):
And you mix that with biomedical engineering,
and you've got a veryinteresting skill set, Christos,
in terms of this new I wouldcall regenerative medicine, it's
a new frontier.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (03:23):
It is a combination, my background of
of medical studies as well, andand engineering, which is
tissue engineering as well, thatum teach me or taught me how to
um uh how to manipulate uh uhhuman cells and make them have
the uh the differentiation orthe progression that someone
(03:47):
wants to uh to drive the cellstowards, but also uh electronics
and um even uh computersciences like coding and
developing algorithms that havealso been very influential in my
career as well.
Caroline Duell (04:02):
So this is you know big dreams and big
ambitions, really.
This passion has has broughtyou to Tesara Therapeutics.
Tell us about the mission ofthis company that you're leading
at the moment.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (04:16):
We established the Sarah
Therapeutics with um uh twoother co-founders, Christopher
Boyer and Christian uh Tuli.
And the mission of the companyum is to develop a platform that
can really uh solve severalexisting problems when it comes
to to therapies for forneuroscience.
(04:37):
So the the platform is based onum lab-grown human neural
tissue.
So um uh we use human neuralstem cells and biomaterials, uh,
talking to tissue engineeringbefore making a reference.
(04:58):
So when we mix these twocomponents together, we uh
basically trick the cells, thethe human neural uh stem cells,
to believe that they are insidethe human brain.
And this uh this technologyhelps them to um to start
producing proteins and all theuh microenvironment necessary uh
(05:21):
to build actual neural tissue.
These are what we call humanmini-brains.
Of course, these neuralmicrotissues they do not
correspond to the whole brainfunction, it is uh just a model
that uh basically correlates tothe cortical region of the human
brain.
The brain has many differentparts for creating uh hormones,
(05:46):
for uh specific memory parts,for vision.
It's it's such a complex organ.
Um, what we're trying to dowith this with this technology
that we've developed uh to sella therapeutics is to um create a
very good um analog or test bedfor for therapies when it comes
(06:08):
to to neuroscience.
And um yeah, neurologicaldiseases uh like Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's and others have beenimpacting millions of people.
As a matter of fact, I in a inuh in a study that was published
uh in Lancet in 2024, umneurological conditions was now
(06:29):
the leading cause of disabilityand ill health um globally, um
more than um um cancer and andmore than uh cardiovascular uh
diseases.
Over the last um uh 30 years orso, um more than 96 percent of
drugs uh fail in clinical trialsuh when it comes to
(06:52):
neurodegenerative diseases andneuroscience therapeutics.
And uh more than 70 percent ofthis failure, um, it really goes
back to the early drugdiscovery.
Uh the literature but alsopractical experience points to
the fact that when researchersare using not the right models
(07:12):
to discover and to validate thetargets, that leads to um an
incorrect decision of the assetsthat they can um then continue
the drug development pathway.
So if someone makes a mistakeat the early stages of drug
discovery or it's not the rightasset, this mistake can then um
(07:36):
progress and can lead tosignificant failures down the
track.
So, what we're trying to dowith our technology is to um uh
develop new insights.
So we have a technology thatcomes much closer to the human
um physiology and uh how adisease may develop in a in a
human setup.
So we are able to apply thistechnology at the earlier stages
(07:59):
of drug development andbasically identify the the
acids, but hopefully also laterin clinical trials.
So we have these micro tissueslive in a uh in a 96-well plane,
it has multiple wells, so youcan imagine one uh just for the
sake of this discussion, I willcall them mini-brains, one
(08:22):
mini-brain in every well whereum uh they grow inside a
specific um uh formulation ofmedia to provide nutrients.
And in this well, we are alsoum adding the uh the therapeutic
compounds, the experimentaltreatments.
And these treatments they havean effect on how these micro
(08:44):
tissues are growing, how thecells and the neurons are
changing, and then we can umevaluate uh what is the effect
of this treatment when it comesto the neural networking, to
what is their effect onneurotransmission and several
other parameters.
So, with one tool, ourmini-brains, we can develop an
(09:06):
abundance of data.
We can what is the effect ofthe drug in the human neurons,
any combination of um of braincells.
Caroline Duell (09:17):
And what are you calling this technology?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (09:19):
It's it's actually the real brain
technology that we call it.
Caroline Duell (09:23):
So, how many of these you know, mini real brains
can you manufacture, you know,in a day?
Like, are we talking thousands?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (09:32):
So, what we call now uh mini-brain,
many people can also relate toum human brain organoids, uh,
that it's it's a form oforganotypic culture, again, in a
3D format, that they're tryingto again replicate the uh the
brain as an as an organ.
And this technology has been uhhas been used for hundreds of
(09:58):
labs around the world uh for afor more than a decade, but
there are some significantlimitations with uh technologies
like that in an academic setup.
And one of these limitations isthe scalability.
Um, there are severallimitations in creating such
organotypic cultures at scale,that has been a limiting factor
(10:20):
for their adoption as well.
When you have um an adoptionfrom the whole pharmaceutical
industry, you need to make surethat uh your, I call it a
product, this this technology,it is very important to be
consistent but also scalable toensure that the the data that
coming out of this technologyare the same.
(10:43):
No matter where you are in theworld, no matter who is doing
the assay, it needs to have thistype of um standards when it
comes to reproducibility andscalability.
And this is exactly where umwhat are the uh the barriers
that we are uh let's saybreaking with our technology.
(11:05):
Um because of the technologythat we have been using uh with
with the scaffold, we have theability to really create
thousands of these uhstructures, of these human
relevant structures every day.
Um, so it it was a very um avery long RD process that we had
(11:29):
at the SARA therapeutics tomake this technology um
compatible with automation.
So we use robotic automationthat can really uh create more
than hundreds of these uh microtissues in every two to three
minutes, and we can generatethousands of these every day if
(11:50):
necessary, and that allows us toreally develop a technology
that can be adopted at a globalscale for the pharmaceutical
industry, and this is what um wewant what we aspire to do as
the cellar therapeutics.
We're trying to develop atechnology that sets the gold
standards when it comes totesting in neuroscience
(12:12):
therapeutics, um, becauseanother um benefit that we can
provide with our technology, ifit is um uh predictive but also
scalable, we can uh set thebenchmarks of different
therapeutics and understand hownew um uh experimental drugs
(12:33):
perform against historical drugsthat they have been in the
market or not.
And that can be very valuableuh for the neuroscience uh uh
field in general.
Caroline Duell (12:44):
Where do the stem cells come from, the neural
stem cells?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (12:48):
Yeah, they are coming from um either
uh healthy donors or uh donorsthat they have a disease.
Uh Tessara is not theresponsible company to retrieve
these cells, although we we canif we want to.
There are some specificspecialized companies that we
(13:08):
are working with that um they dothis as a job to have all the
um ethics and the processesapproved from the FDA or the uh
regulatory framework of everyjurisdiction to collect um uh
cells either from uh from theskin or from blood, that then
(13:28):
they can turn into neural stemcells, and then we we use these
neural stem cells to uh yeahgenerate our micro tissue.
And that uh allows us to um togo one step closer to the actual
human clinical trials becausewhat we're also um trying to do
is to um collect um um cellsfrom patients that have um
(13:55):
different forms of Alzheimer'sdisease, I i and this is a very
simple term I'm using um fromdifferent genetic backgrounds
and different and sexes to tryand replicate what the clinical
trial is uh uh in a normalclinical trial setup with
patients, but in the lab.
(14:17):
So by collecting cells fromindividuals with different
genetic backgrounds, we cansomehow mimic this clinical
trial in this, as we said, theclinical trial in this concept,
where we create these uhmini-brains um from uh neurons
that they're coming fromindividuals that they have
(14:39):
different forms of Alzheimer'sdisease.
Caroline Duell (14:42):
And are you working with any drug discovery
companies in Australia?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (14:46):
We're working with um companies that
develop neurological assets inAustralia and also in the United
States mostly.
Um, so yes, there are um um uhlisted companies and unlisted
companies uh that uh are usingour technology to de-risk their
drug development pathway.
Uh because it's not only thede-risking by collecting human
(15:10):
relevant insight, but alsotrying to limit the use of
animal models when they are notnecessary in order to inform
your uh readouts, can helpcompanies accelerate their drug
development path.
So a relatively simple studycan take two to three years when
using animal models when itcomes to breeding the animals,
to get the information from theanimal models and all the
(15:32):
processes involved, and it'svery expensive.
And what it takes two years tocomplete in animal models, we
can do with our technology in acouple of months.
So, and at a fraction of thecost.
So companies are using usalready to de-risk and
accelerate their drugdevelopment pathway.
Caroline Duell (15:53):
So tell us about the US market and obviously
with customers in the US, what'sbeen the response, uh, interest
there in your technology?
And how often do you have to goto the States to meet with your
customers and potentialcustomers?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (16:07):
Uh, we're a relatively new company,
so we we started uh operationsin 2020, but I think um we had a
very good trajectory since ittook us from concept to revenue
about four years.
So we started generatingrevenue in um 2024.
So we're still a new companywhen it comes to
(16:29):
commercialization and we'restill expanding.
We have a small number ofcustomers, important ones.
And we have seen a significantchange in in the demand of our
technology um after the FDAmodernization act, where they um
uh passed uh uh a law that theyended a blanket rule that um no
(16:56):
company, no sponsor could startclinical trials without having
animal models.
So that was a mandate.
This mandate doesn't existanymore, which means companies
can initiate clinical trials,testing uh a therapeutic um
candidate in humans even withoutusing animal models.
(17:17):
And um after this uh thischange in the in the
legislation, there are severalother changes that have
happened, and the FDA has uhresponded into these changes um
um quickly, I would say.
And very recently, uh just uhin April this year, um they
(17:39):
developed a specific roadmap forphasing out the use of animal
models in in general.
So, what FDA is trying to do isin a few years' time, the use
of animal models would be anexception rather than the rule.
Uh, because new technologieslike ours, they're more
human-relevant, more predictive,and they can assess many of
(18:02):
information that we get fromanimal models uh faster and more
reliably and cheaper as well.
So we're trying as a company tocreate stronger awareness uh of
what we do in the US.
As I mentioned, we are a smallcompany, and unfortunately, Sara
and many, many other companiesare um well underfunded.
(18:24):
Um, well underfunded.
So we are trying to leverage umbigger partners um and run as
lean operations as possible herein Australia in order to raise
awareness of our products.
So, as part of these um uh ofthese strategies are recent
(18:45):
agreement and collaboration withuh nSphero , which is a
Swiss-based company.
Yeah, um and InSphero is is isa remarkable company and uh with
a remarkable CEO, I considerthem as the architects of human
relevant in vitro cultures.
Uh they they started with um uhliver, human micro tissues, and
(19:08):
then they uh developed um uhcancer models uh and and and
other models as well that reallyum help the risk development
programs, uh like Tesara, uh,for example.
And uh InSfiro is is thelargest uh company with
specialization in scalable um 3Dhuman relevant in vitro
(19:31):
technology.
So working with a company likeInSfiro um helps us to um to
have a bigger footprint thanwhat we have because we work as
partners and we havetechnologies that can complement
each other.
Caroline Duell (19:44):
Well, congratulations on that
distribution agreement withInSfiro.
That is major news for you.
And watch this space, I think.
Um another um interestingannouncement that from late last
year was that you were part ofa Cooperative Research Centers
projects grant with Silo and theUniversity of Sydney.
(20:05):
That's a major project that youyou're part of or leading.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (20:09):
It is indeed something uh very very
close to my heart because again,we are creating new new science
there.
It's um something that, in myknowledge, hasn't been done
before uh using organotypiccultures to uh to get into this
space.
And to be more specific, whatum the grant that we managed to
(20:30):
get together with Silo and theUniversity of Sydney is to
develop um a framework of um anda pipeline where we uh uh
Tesara is screening a list ofcompounds um originally sourced
from xylo that they have uh thatthey have developed through
(20:52):
their proprietary technologies,and then develop um new models
of um drug abuse andspecifically methamphetamine
abuse.
So we are entering um the stageof like mental health um
sector, uh, so to develop an invitro model to assess um
(21:15):
addiction and to assess how umnew uh new therapeutic
candidates can uh can preventaddiction or can be used to help
people with addiction when itcomes to uh uh yeah illegal
drugs like methamphetamine.
So we are bringing togetherexpertise um like our technology
(21:38):
that, as I mentioned, wedevelop a a whole new kind of of
a disease model for thisprogram.
Uh the knowledge of um the andthe expertise of silo developing
some novel neuroplastogens, andI will explain later what that
is, and also the expertise ofthe University of Um of Sydney,
(22:01):
that they have developed someanimal models as well to test
the the reactions and thebehavioral components that of
course we cannot test with withour technology, and that can be
used as uh let's say a uh avalidation of our findings.
So, what we are trying to do inthese um uh in this ground is
(22:24):
to identify therapeuticcomponents that can change the
neural networking of the humanbrain.
So we want to increase neuralplasticity in the human brain
and create new connectionsbecause the research so far
suggests that by by doing that,you are um helping a specific
(22:46):
set of individuals to be um uhto accept new new new treatments
and new learnings as well.
So um, together with umspecific programs uh designed to
help people with addiction andwith administration of such uh
therapeutic compounds, um, wereally believe that we can make
(23:11):
a significant difference in thelife of this um of these people
and change their uh addictionprofile.
And I have to say, I'm notexpert in that field, so I
apologize in advance if I saysomething um inappropriate
there.
Um, but the good thing aboutthe Sarah is that um um we have
(23:31):
already developed some really,really good and promising
results that we've never seenbefore, which indicates that we
can really see this effect ofaddiction um that we know from
humans when we expose ourtechnology to uh to to drugs
like methamphetamine, which isamazing.
Caroline Duell (23:54):
It it's so you can see it's sort of in the test
tube, you can see thisinteraction of addiction or the
cells, you know, that we have todo it.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (24:02):
So we can see we can already see um
elements of what now it happensin the in the human networking,
how the neurons are dhammasedand they decrease their ability
to communicate with otherneurons.
Caroline Duell (24:16):
Really?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (24:16):
Um, and yeah, it is something that
hasn't been seen before, in inmy knowledge, and we're really,
really excited about thisframework.
And as part of the CRCPprogram, and I guess that's
important for our industry, isthat after the program we could
use this this pipeline, thisframework that we develop for
(24:38):
for all the other companies aswell.
So it is really a technologythat hopefully can elevate the
the translation of Australianresearch and technologies to to
help this program um and theproblem which could be expanded
to to it could be expanded toopioid crisis and and other
issues when it comes to um uh uhto to problems in relation to
(25:04):
addiction.
Caroline Duell (25:05):
Yes, and incredible.
And you know, as we know, thethe issue of drug addiction from
everything from fentanyl tomethamphetamine is totally
changing communities around theworld.
Can you just explain what areneuroplastigens?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (25:22):
Yeah, it um the neuroplastigens is is
exactly what I mentionedbefore.
There are specific classes ofcompounds that their main uh job
would be to change the theneural networking, to promote
the plasticity inside the brain,to to create new connections
between neurons that they arefunctional as well.
(25:44):
And uh together with this,there are several changes in the
human brain because that allowsuh the brain to learn faster,
better.
In some cases, it can helpchange the uh neuroinflammatory
profile as well by usingtherapeutic candidates that can
uh again help the addict brainto perform better in combination
(26:09):
with other behavioraltreatments.
And again, I'm not expert intoall the treatments when it comes
to addiction, but in my in myunderstanding, and what we want
to achieve is, as I mentioned,these therapeutic compounds to
be in addition to um specificbehavioral training and and and
(26:29):
um guidance that these peoplewill get from other services,
not just by the uh the use of uhtherapeutic compounds.
Caroline Duell (26:40):
And how long is this CRC project for?
Is it a couple of years?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (26:44):
For three years.
It is for three years, yeah.
Caroline Duell (26:46):
Absolutely fascinating.
Looking into the science ofaddiction at a test tube level,
at that neuron level, must bemind-blowing.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (26:54):
It is, it is, and and soon we we
plan to to launch uhready-to-use uh platforms or
plates for mini-brains.
What that means is that so farall the work and revenue we have
generated is by providingin-house drug screening services
to uh to companies.
(27:16):
But now we're developing uh aprogram or a product that we can
um distribute this type ofplates, 96 well plates or 34
well plates, with themini-brains inside that they're
leaving.
And and companies can will goin the near future in our
website or through ourdistributors to order these
(27:37):
mini-brains so they can havethem in their lab and do a
variety of testing.
And we really help that thiswill um uh we think that this
will help the translation ofresearch in Australia but also
um globally and uh helpneuroscience innovators
everywhere to progress theirprogram because if we want to
(28:01):
have um a transformationalchange into uh the development
of therapeutics forneurodegenerative diseases, we
need to solve this problemcollectively.
So we can use all the brainpower in the world uh available,
and many smart people in theUS, in Europe, in Australia uh
(28:22):
to use the best tools and findproblems and therapies for
neurodegenerative diseases.
So we we want to create thisenabling platform to raise the
the standards and the successesof clinical trials.
Caroline Duell (28:39):
How do you transport this material?
Um, does it have to berefrigerated?
How long is the lifespan ofthese mini brains in this sort
of manufacturing device?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (28:49):
We are at the last stages of RD,
and I cannot reveal all theinformation, but uh most likely
we will not need uh uh coldchain solutions to transport
these micro tissues, which makesit very simple for us and
inexpensive as well for for thecustomers of our uh technology.
(29:10):
And once the customers umreceive our micro tissues, they
can stay in their labs formonths and months to do to
studies chronic exposure uh uhstudies and assess the uh uh
yeah how effective their umexperimental drugs are.
Uh but also what we are veryexcited about, and I'm again I'm
(29:34):
going even further in thefuture, what's what we want to
do, having the ability to createsuch uh so many micro tissues
and literally have millions ofdata points, is we want to use
um, and I'm I'm using the termvaguely because there are many
different systems that can beused.
(29:55):
Uh, we want to use artificialintelligence AI to Combine an
abundance of data from safety,toxicity, electrophysiology, and
others to create a very strongpredictive model that it's going
to work together with ourmini-brains.
(30:16):
So we want to have the bestinput possible from a technology
like our mini-brains and usingthe right um data science and
artificial intelligence tocombine all this data that we
can get and uh really helpcompanies and the industry to uh
have a transformational growthwhen it comes to the development
(30:39):
of uh therapeutic candidatesthat they really have an effect
and uh potentially can helpmillions of people with um
neurodegenerative diseases.
Caroline Duell (30:50):
And all manufactured in Parkville?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (30:53):
Uh yes, that's right.
We are based at Jumar sinceDecember 2023.
Um, yeah, and we manufacturethat um here in Parkville.
Caroline Duell (31:03):
It's a great story, Christos.
And you worked early on in yourproduct development through the
CSIRO Kickstart program.
So, what would you say aboutcompanies thinking about
partnering or working with someof those types of incubator
programs?
How helpful was that?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (31:21):
Well, I can uh I can only say that
without the Kickstarter, perhapswe wouldn't be here today.
Uh working with CSIRO and uhand the team there in the uh uh
biomaterials team um and thebiology team and the kickstart
program was fundamental becausethe the company just started
(31:44):
with with a with a concept andan idea that we shared with
CSIRO, and they made this idea areality, working together to
develop our our biomaterials,composition of matter, and and
anything else was wasfundamental, and then to develop
(32:06):
the the processes that thesebiomaterials can be um
synthesized at scale.
This is really uh fundamentalto have consistent manufacturing
at scale and CSIRO was uh yeah,critical for that, critical.
And the Kickstarter programhelped us to do that because we
(32:26):
literally had no money.
I was not working, I quit myjob.
Uh the job I had, I said, okay,this is it.
I'm making the sellertherapeutics, is going to happen
or not.
So we're very fortunate that wefound an investor that wrote us
this um 50,000 check, let'ssay, in the beginning, and we
(32:49):
used that directly for the CSIROKickstarter program to double
that that money and yeah, uhcreate or materials.
Yes, that's that's how itstarted.
Caroline Duell (33:01):
Very much an Australian-born innovation
developed here and manufacturedhere, which is a fantastic story
because you are a startup, andas you've said, it is very
difficult to get funding, it'svery difficult to get investment
at that early stage.
Just a fantastic result foryou.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (33:20):
I I think it is, and it's a good
Australian story and technologythat can really go global.
We had minimal support from umgovernment initiatives or state
initiatives in order to do that,no matter how much we have been
we have been trying.
And our our one of our um goalsas well is to be a financial
(33:43):
contributor to the economy herein the ecosystem.
And to be honest, this has notbeen recognized almost at all,
or in at very, very minimal uhstates.
And um, yes, I would reallylike to see initiatives that
they help um companies like theSARA because we are not the only
ones, because um uh like theTessara, many other innovators
(34:07):
at Jumar in Victoria andeverywhere in Australia can can
really help um create newinnovations that Australia can
be proud of, and we can have asignificant part of the common
economy to be based in thesetype of innovations.
Caroline Duell (34:22):
Do you feel like investors in the US are are
more likely to go for a newexperimental type technology?
They're just more of a firstmover on that science.
Are we a bit cautious inAustralia?
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (34:34):
In my humble opinion, yes.
Very, very cautious.
We do not celebrate risk, Ithink.
And I think we we can learnmore from the um the US
mentality that they theycelebrate risk, they celebrate
uh failure in some cases, um,because that is the mother of
(34:54):
all innovations.
And we can see how innovationnow is the driving force of
economy in in the US, from theservices businesses, the
software, artificialintelligence, and several other
components.
Innovation is what is drivingeconomic growth, in my opinion.
Um, and I think Australiareally needs to think hard on
(35:18):
that and create innovations withcompetitive advantages and
uniqueness to do that.
And we have seen also examplesof Australian innovations that
they have not been recognized inAustralia, but they did get
recognized in the US and nowthey're part of a of another
economy.
And although in newspapers andarticles we we call them
(35:40):
Australian innovations, they arenot anymore.
Caroline Duell (35:44):
Well, they're born here, but then they leave.
And they take you know the IPand the and the job
opportunities as well.
Dr Christos Papadimitr (35:51):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Caroline Duell (35:52):
It's a really interesting problem, I think,
that that the sector's facing interms of employment for uh for
scientists and for um biomedicalengineers.
Obviously, there's a hugeopportunity there around this
type of technology.
Dr Christos Papadim (36:06):
Absolutely.
There is a huge opportunity,and CSIRO also, again, uh it's a
fantastic organization.
Um, they created um a report acouple of years ago when it
comes to the development ofnon-animal technologies.
Uh, and we identified that thegrowth opportunity and the
financial opportunity ofAustralia alone in these
(36:27):
technologies alone can be morethan 1.5 billion of growth.
So we are talking a hugeopportunity here.
Um, new technologies, uh uh,new skills that they can be
developed uh from companies likeTessara.
Tessara is a is a tiny company.
Uh it's it's about eight peoplethat we have.
Um we we need more people, butwe also need more capital to
(36:51):
employ more people.
So we are trying to run a verylean operation and try to
achieve as much as possible.
But hopefully, um everythingthat we discussed, the changes
in the regulatory framework, thenew innovation that we develop
with the ready-to-use plates andthe artificial intelligence
components can help us grow ourbusiness through revenues, but
(37:12):
also becoming more attractive touh domestic and US investors um
to help us grow the businessand um create more uh uh uh
skilled uh experts that can helpthe Australia to grow as well.
Caroline Duell (37:29):
Well, it sounds like definitely the right time
for your real brain technologyand exciting times ahead.
We'll be watching withinterest, Christos, and we wish
you and the team all the best atTessara Therapeutics on
developing this amazingtechnology.
Dr Christos Papadimitriou (37:47):
Thank you, Caroline.
I'm very um grateful for thisopportunity.
MTP Connect has been doing alsoa fantastic work um managing
development grants andopportunities that they provide
to biotech companies.
And I think it's a very strongcontributor to creating
opportunities for Australianbiotechs to thrive and grow and
(38:08):
again uh bounce above theirweight and be become globally
competitive.
So thank you for everything youdo as well.
Caroline Duell (38:15):
That was to Tessara Therapeutics CEO and
managing director, Dr.
Christos Papadimitriou,discussing their real-brain
technology.
You've been listening to theMTP Connect Podcast.
This podcast is produced on thelands of the Wurundjeri people
here in Nam, Melbourne.
(38:36):
Thanks for listening to theshow.
If you love what you've heard,share our podcast and follow us
to more.
Until next time.
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