Go-getting Kiwi scientist makes good in the UK

Being crushed against London commuters for 45 minutes on a crowded tube train each morning is a far cry from Phil L'Huillier's former 10-minute leisurely cycle trip to work when he was working as a scientist at AgResearch's Ruakura campus.

L'Huillier recently became an executive director at Cancer Research Technology (CRT), a subsidiary company of the world's largest independent charity Cancer Research UK, which he joined in 2005 as director of business management. He helps discoveries made by his scientific team and other academics make it into the marketplace.

His 30-strong team evaluate the science, identify potential commercial partners and manage the ensuing dealings. And his Kiwi connections are not lying idle. A potential anti-cancer drug discovered by Professor Bill Denny at the University of Auckland is now in clinical trials for treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer, thanks to CRT's involvement. They found a pharmaceutical company who was willing to further develop the medicine.

At times, the relationship works the other way around. CRT recently asked Denny to do further research on a potential new drug from the UK.

"We identify early-stage diagnostics or therapeutics, of which there are many, and, because of limited resources, will sometimes approach academic scientists to help us progress research on a potential new medicine," says L'Huillier.

"We also look for ways to develop cancer diagnostic tools and therapies more quickly and may take on drugs that companies have deprioritised which might benefit niche markets, such as children with rare forms of cancer," he says.

L'Huillier made the move from the lab bench to commerce in 2001 when he left New Zealand to join a Dutch biotech company in Melbourne.

His work on genetically modified cattle was becoming difficult due to regulatory hold-ups and personal threats from those opposed to GM.

"It was becoming very frustrating and, when I looked forward, I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel – there was just no clear path ahead", L'Huillier said.

Despite this, he still cites his work in the Waikato, alongside David Wells and others, to develop Australasia's first cloned GM animals as one of his most satisfying career moments.

"It was quite an achievement", he says proudly.

Part of their long-term goal was to breed GM cows capable of producing human therapeutic proteins in their milk, such as myelin basic protein for treatment of people with multiple sclerosis. "I never had any doubts about what I was doing, I saw it as my role as an applied scientist in New Zealand to look at the application of new technology and how it could be applied in the New Zealand business and farming context," L'Huillier says.

L'Huillier's scientific curiosity stems from his childhood, which he spent on a farm in Victoria, Australia.

When he was 10, his parents and four siblings relocated to Richmond, near Nelson.

Following high school, L'Huillier attended Canterbury University before taking a job at AgResearch in Hamilton in 1988 working for the Dairy Science group.

Over the next 15 years he left twice, first to complete a PhD in Auckland with Professor Dick Bellamy, the now retired Dean of Science at the University of Auckland, and then to work in France for several years.

L'Huillier credits his career choices and success to several people.

"There was a lecturer who supervised my BSc Honours project, Dennis Poppi, he was very influential; Arnold Bryant, my first boss in Hamilton who took me under his wing and passed on a lot of skills and knowledge early in his career; and Dick Bellamy who had a pragmatic influence."

While at AgResearch, L'Huillier also did his Masters of Business Administration at Waikato University, which is proving useful in his current role at CRT, a job he really enjoys. "The business is about benefiting cancer patients, we are doing something very useful."

Dr Branwen Morgan is an Australian-based science journalist, formerly from Hamilton.

- © Fairfax NZ News