[Music plays and the image shows a new slide showing the Australian Government Crest, Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation medallion animated and turning, and the words 2021, Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation, and the name, Professor Anthony Steven Weiss AM]
[Image changes to show a close view of Professor Anthony Weiss walking towards the camera, and the camera zooms out on Tony walking in the building]
Professor Tony Weiss: I'm Professor Tony Weiss. I'm the McCaughey Chair in Biochemistry and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Sydney.
[Image changes to show a side facing view of Tony talking, and then the image changes to show a facing view of Tony talking to the camera]
I've always wanted to be a scientist. And in fact, when I was a little tiny kid, my parents brought me a toy car. They left the room, came back and there I was dismantling this toy car.
[Image changes to show a side facing view of Tony talking, and then the image changes to show a facing view of Tony talking to the camera]
And it was at that moment. I think I became a scientist. And ever since that time, I've always loved the idea of watching and learning how things tick.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on Tony climbing stairs in a multistorey building]
And I'm still doing the same thing today. But this time around it's the biological world.
[Image changes to show a close view of a finger pointing at data on a computer screen, and then the image changes to show the sign “Professor Tony Weiss” on the wall]
It’s understanding how the human body works and therefore trying to repair the human body.
[Images move through of Tony talking and looking at a computer screen, and then the image changes to show Tony talking to the camera]
I'm best known for the ability to build elastic tissue. Our bodies have elastic tissue in a whole range of places. For example, elastic ligaments in our skin and so our skin flexes, in blood vessels, as they expand and contract, in literally multiple parts of the body that need to have this flexible elasticity, they always need the same building component.
[Images move through of a rear view of Tony and a colleague in conversation while looking at a computer screen, and a close view of Tony working in a laboratory]
We have developed ways to be able to build the precise components that are used to assemble features of the human body.
[Images move through of a close view of liquid being syringed up, Tony opening a machine in the lab, Tony working at a lab bench with a machine, and then a close view of the machine]
It was amazing to watch how we transformed basic science, being done in the lab to something that was much more applied, and now began to look like something that could really help a lot of people.
[Image changes to show Tony talking to the camera]
Our research and clinical trials are showing that we can halve the time taken for a wound to heal.
[Images move through of a side facing view of talking to the camera]
I founded a company, Elastagen, and that was designed to take this technology forward.
[Image changes to show Tony seated next to a window looking at an iPad and a Smartphone]
People said it couldn't be done. And I just ignored the naysayers and went straight on and succeeded.
[Image changes to show a side facing view of Tony talking to the camera, and then the camera zooms in on Tony talking to the camera]
Ten years later, the company was sold for more than $300 million in total in one of the largest healthcare transactions in Australia's history.
[Images move through of a close view of an iPad, Tony talking on a Smartphone while looking at an iPad, and then Tony and a colleague looking at a computer screen]
Elastagen has now transitioned to the global stage and it is a true Aussie success story. Elastagen didn't simply exist on its own.
[Images move through to show a close view of Tony and a colleague in conversation, researchers working in a laboratory]
I will be always eternally grateful to that collection of people, to that village of people to make Elastagen succeed.
[Image changes to show Tony talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show Tony walking past the glass windows on a laboratory]
To receive the Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation means so much to me. Innovation is a roller coaster ride. We go through ups, we go through downs and in our case it was a long journey.
[Image changes to show Tony talking to the camera]
And most important, it's a celebration of the importance of science and innovation in this country.
[Image changes to show a new slide showing the Australian Government Crest, Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation medallion animated and turning, and the words 2021 Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation, and the name, Professor Anthony Steven Weiss AM]
