Chris Franco
Professor
Flinders University
South Australia
Biography
Professor Christopher Franco's research career combines both the industrial and academic spheres. For 10 years he lead a successful drug discovery and development group in an International biopharmaceutical company and holds patents for 11 compound families. In 1993, he joined the School of Medicine, as a founding academic in the Biotechnology Program. Now Head, Medical Biotechnology, he manages the Biotechnology teaching and research programs. He is Australia's leading actinobacteriologist and continues to discover novel actinobacteria and new bioactives from algae, plant cell culture, mammalian cells and marine organisms. He pioneered the isolation and application of actinobacterial endopytes for sustainable crop production and leads GRDC's multi-insitutional Benficial Microbes Project. He has extensive international experience, workng in the UK, Germany, India, Indonesia, Singapore and China. As International Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences and School of Medicine, he manages the Faculty's international collaborations. He collaborates with researchers in Asia, Europe and N. America.
Research Interest
Agricultural biotechnology Biochemistry and cell biology Industrial biotechnology Environmental biotechnology Medical biotechnology Microbiology