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 in the School of Medicine. 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 Benificial Microbes Project.
He has extensive international experience, working in the UK, Germany, India, Indonesia, Singapore and China. As International Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences and the School of Medicine, he manages the Faculty's international collaborations. He collaborates with researchers in Asia, Europe and N. America.