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The Smart Biotech Story
Follow the stroke or be the stroke that everyone follows
Dr Sibongile Gumbi, our founder, came across this quote in her very early days, having started the predecessor to Smart Biotech. At the time, the young start-up had a purpose, a technology, a strong and supportive team, and lots of optimism. The team was ready to innovate; setting itself to being the stroke that everyone else follows.
For a period of 10 years before starting Smart Biotech they had been monitoring the evolution of plant-based expression systems as a disruptive technology to making biological products. By 2015, the viability of plant expression technology had been proven as a concept in South Africa and serendipitously, all these local opportunities were in the animal health space. This marked the beginnings of Smart Biotech.
Smart Biotech recognised a great opportunity to introduce a new technology capable of making a significant socio-economic impact on animal health and the management of livestock, especially for smallholder farmers.
Harnessing the healing and productive power of plants
At Smart Biotech we appreciate the value and power that plants offer to life and health. Our investment into developing plant expressed biologics is a long-term one. We also understand the interconnectedness of animal and human disease through zoonosis (the transfer of disease from animals to humans) and therefore, the importance of managing disease diagnosis and prevention at the animal stage whilst offering disease treatment options at the human level.
In keeping with working with plants, Smart Biotech has a growing portfolio of herbal products used to alleviate gastric and metabolic conditions. Medicinal plants provide major source of molecules with medicinal properties due to the presence of natural compounds. In addition to being a significant source of molecules with medicinal properties comprising phytochemical constituents, medicinal plants are valuable for treating various human diseases and, therefore, play an important role in healing.
Meet our team of scientists
Founder and CEO
Dr Sibongile Gumbi is the Founder and CEO of Smart Biotech. She holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Cape Town and an EMBA from IMD, Switzerland. Dr Gumbi’s career spans the technology-innovation value-chain, starting from idea-creation to where she is now, an entrepreneur. She has held numerous posts in the areas of technology and innovation management.
As an entrepreneur, Dr Gumbi founded Smart Innovation Management Consulting in 2007 and managed Ferox Pharm, a phytomedicines producer.
She is a Fellow of the eighth class of the Africa Leadership Initiative.
Throughout her career she has always had a deep passion for innovation, especially innovation relating to the development of new technologies and inventions.
Operations manager
Dr Carin Basson is a plant molecular biologist by training, with a passion for research management and (more recently) business operations. She completed her B.Sc, Hons and M.Sc. (Plant Biotechnology), and her Ph.D. in Wine Biotechnology at Stellenbosch University, followed by an online certificate course in business administration at the Stellenbosch University Business School.
Dr Basson has followed a diverse and meandering road in the search for a science-related career in South Africa, which included research support services to post-graduate students, academic programme coordinators, and private companies, research and operations management for a biomedical engineering start-up, paralegal work in the world of luxury goods, and scientific editing, before joining Smart Biotech as operations manager.
A brief look at our brands
SmartBiologics is the home of Smart Biotech’s plant-produced biological product portfolio
We are scientists with years of experience in performing and evaluating research. We build our SmartBiologics portfolio by finding innovative antigens that can be used to create vaccines and diagnostics, and then manufacture them in plants (the kind with leaves).
SmartHerbals is the home of Smart Biotech’s human health portfolio
Using our years of experience, we build our SmartHerbals portfolio by looking for natural medicine backed by clinical testing so that you can trust the claims we make.
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