Mark Smythe

Mark Smythe is the founder of Protagonist and has led the company’s development as both Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Executive Officer. Since Protagonist’s inception, Mark has been responsible for raising venture capital funding and negotiating Protagonist’s alliances with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Mark was originally trained as a medicinal chemist, obtaining a Ph.D. from Melbourne University. He was member of a team that discovered the marketed drug Relenza. He has extensive experience in industry-based research management and technology commercialisation. Prior to establishing Protagonist, he was Principal Investigator at the Centre for Drug Design and Development, now the Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He managed an almost 10 year research contract with GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to this he was a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University with Prof Garland Marshall.