Dr Tony Simula was previously Manager, Development & Commercialisation at the Cooperative Research Centre for Cell Therapy Manufacturing (CTM CRC), where he oversaw the transition of technologies from the proof-of-concept stage through to pilot-scale, adding value prior to their commercialisation. Dr Simula has worked in private and public sector research organisations, including two previous Cooperative Research Centres, and publicly listed Australian and European companies of varying sizes. He has 10 years’ international academic research experience, followed by 20 years in the commercial biopharmaceutical/cell therapy industry.

Dr Sue Low is Operations Manager at TekCyte and oversees the daily activities at the company’s cleanroom facility and laboratories. With a background in biomaterials development, Dr Low received her PhD on dissolvable ocular biomaterials in 2008. After, Dr Low worked in a similar field, but with a focus on plasma surface modification to improve biomaterial compatibility. With an interest in the downstream processes of medical device development, Dr Low also began training to work under GMP cleanroom conditions. This involved creation of a new Quality System for the TekCyte facility and maintaining a cleanroom facility to GMP requirements.

Dr Louise Smith is responsible for translating laboratory scale research to commercial scale. Louise received her PhD in 2008 from the University of Sheffield in biomaterials for wound healing. She continued developing biomaterials for wound healing applications after completing her PhD, work that brought her to Australia in 2011. In 2013 she became a project leader for the Cooperative Research Centre for Cell Therapy Manufacturing (CTM CRC), leading a team that developed a dressing to deliver mesenchymal stromal cells to wounds. The challenges involved in scaling up technology from the academic environment to commercial scale led to her joining TekCyte in 2017.

Dr Sameer Al-Bataineh is a Senior Materials Engineer at TekCyte with a strong background in surface engineering and characterisation of biomaterials. He joined TekCyte in 2020, after 14 years of international and national academic research experiences in applied biomaterials research. Dr Al-Bataineh received his PhD from the University of South Australia in 2006. His PhD was on the development of antimicrobial coatings for biomaterials utilised in biomedical applications. Dr Al-Bataineh has advanced expertise in surface coatings, plasma polymerisation processes (both vacuum and atmospheric), plasma diagnostics, scale-up of coating processes, surface characterisation and data analysis. He also has a wide experience in managing research projects.