When women in deep tech are given the support and space needed to step into leadership positions, the opportunity for innovation is endless.
This was exactly the case for trailblazers Bliss Cunningham, a Research Fellow at The Doherty Institute, and Ella Casale, a Project Manager in the McDevitt Lab at the University of Melbourne.
The lab has been developing a small molecule therapeutic, called PBT2, as a safe, low cost treatment for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. It’s shown no development of antibiotic resistance, meaning there’s exciting potential to make a real-world impact on the health of patients.
Since 2023, the McDevitt Lab has received >AU$2.5M in non-dilutive funding, plus scientific development support for PBT2 from Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), a global non-profit partnership accelerating antibacterial innovation to protect lives from bacterial infections.
Under the leadership of Professor Christopher McDevitt, a long-time researcher in the field, Cunningham and Casale were encouraged to apply for CSIRO’s ON Accelerate 9 program to explore how the lab’s research could be built into a powerful biotechnology venture with the right market support and interest.
“One of the reasons why we’ve been able to thrive and be quite successful through the program is to do with Chris empowering us both to succeed,” Casale tells Women’s Agenda.
“Chris actually sent the ON Accelerator application process to us,” Casale says, adding that after their team was chosen for the program, “he was really great at giving myself and Bliss the space to take the lead”.
“We have that trust across the team,” she says, “He’s an internationally renowned professor with a lab of almost 20 people, but not everyone can do that—step aside and hand over the reins to other people.”
Cunningham agrees, saying that while historically, women in research industries haven’t always been given the trust and space to lead, the ability to step aside didn’t surprise her coming from Professor McDevitt.
“It can be quite common for people to hold on to things [including their own discovery], but that’s not been our experience. Chris has brought us in and let us run with it,” Cunningham says.
Embracing entrepreneurship
Turning science into real-world solutions, CSIRO’s ON Accelerate is a structured accelerator program for research teams to validate and develop their high-potential science backed innovative ventures.
The program offered Casale and Cunningham an opportunity to build their leadership potential, expand their networks and embrace commercialisation and entrepreneurship, an area of expertise that neither of their backgrounds had yet opened up to them.
A project manager, Casale holds a strong background in public health and program management from her time in the UK civil service. Meanwhile, Cunningham holds a PhD and is a molecular bacteriologist interested in infectious disease, with previous experience in translational research.
While neither had delved into entrepreneurship previously, the ON Program gave them the chance to develop their business acumen skills.
Over the course of three months, ON Accelerate supported Casale and Cunningham as they explored advancing the groundbreaking PBT2 research into Elemental Therapeutics, a pre-incorporated preclinical stage biotechnology company.
“It was a very formative experience for us both,” Casale says. “That’s really how we started developing the venture and were given access to all this expertise.”
She says that while the team was creating and developing Elemental Therapeutics, the ON Program provided the space to ask questions and seek feedback from experts in a supportive environment.
Having always been interested in the tangible side of research and collaboration, Cunningham says the program helped empower her to develop crucial networks and speak publicly on the research’s progress and potential.
“I’ve gotten so much more confident in speaking with people about what we’re doing, what I’m doing,” Cunningham says. “I feel empowered to have those conversations. They’re not so difficult anymore.”
Along with the collaboration forged throughout the team and program, both Casale and Cunningham agree there’s been a special sense of partnership between the two of them on this project.
“Ella’s got this really nice oversight, especially of the public health side of AMR [antimicrobial resistance], whereas my brain sort of thinks about the research and the science in a certain way,” Cunningham explains.
“I think we encourage each other to think about the picture on a broader level, but in those different aspects that we both have expertise.”
‘Anyone can do this’
It’s been a few weeks now since Elemental Therapeutics emerged from the CSIRO program, and Casale and Cunningham are only just getting started.
Their drive and passion are higher than ever, with the project working to progress into pre-clinical trials and continue the development of the product. At the moment, they’re working out how to get to market and get the drug to patients as quickly as possible.
“Currently we’re developing PBT2 for a subset of pneumonia patients specifically, and now we’re thinking about how we can go bigger and broader to have more of a global reach,” says Casale, adding that they’re both excited for Elemental Therapeutics’ potential.
“We’ve had some really exciting conversations as well, building on the work of the ON Program,” says Casale. “Every single time we speak to somebody new, we learn something different, helping us shape the venture and the products and where we could go with it.”
Cunningham agrees, saying the next stage of their journey will involve putting their “heads down” and continuing the growth they’ve had from the program.
For any other researchers out there, keen to build on the science and embrace commercialisation, Cunningham says the CSIRO program is a great opportunity to be surrounded by “supportive and genuinely nurturing” people.
A standout in the CSIRO program as well, Casale was recognised as the recipient of the CSIRO ON Impactful Leadership Award, along with $10,000 to support her continued growth in innovation.
She says that while growing a venture can look overwhelming from the outside, it’s completely possible with the right support and knowledge.
“Anyone can do this,” Casale says. “With the right support, anyone can take that first step and start building a venture, if they really want to, and they believe in it, and they’re coming from a place of genuinely wanting to make a difference”.
“Yes, you need the intellectual property, you need the patent, you need the technology, but that’s only the very first part of the journey.”
Ready to take your research-powered venture to market? Applications are now open for the 2025 Cohort 10 intake of CSIRO’s ON Accelerate program. Find more information here.