Professor Sir Bob Elliott, of Auckland, KNZM for services to medical research
Professor Sir Bob Elliott was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1999 for his services to medical research.
Sir Bob has been Medical Director of Living Cell Technologies (LCT) since 1999, which develops cell-based products to treat life threatening human diseases. He pioneered the transplantation of insulin-producing pig cells into humans to treat type-1 diabetes and oversaw the development of a joint venture with a Japanese commercialization partner for further development of DIABECELL in the United States and Japan. Most recently LCT has focused on developing cell therapies to treat neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. He co-founded and is a director of NZeno, which applies gene editing technology to New Zealand pigs to produce safe pig kidneys that are compatible for human transplantation. In 2011 he received the World Class New Zealander (Life Sciences) award recognising his achievements as an entrepreneur in life sciences, as a medical educator, and in patient care. He co-founded the Child Health Research Foundation in 1971, now known as Cure Kids, the largest funder of child health research outside the Government. His method for testing for Cystic Fibrosis in infants has been internationally adopted. In the early 1990s Sir Bob began researching A2 beta-casein in milk and its implications for Type 1 diabetes and heart disease, which informed the establishment of the A2 Milk Corporation.
