Taking the leap

Innovator and former MRC scientist Dr Maritha Kotze gave up the security of a permanent research post to start up a genetic company together with three of her previous PhD students. ELMIEN WOLVAARDT spoke to her.

'I loved my job - don't get me wrong! Nothing compares with the raw excitement of being the first person to discover something new - especially something that has an impact on health.

'But the opportunities to apply my research were very limited. It just didn't seem right that I was getting so much money from the MRC and Stellenbosch University for so many years, and that so little of our research was being translated into a form that could be of use to the general public.'

Dr Maritha Kotze's research was indeed of use to the general public: during her career at the MRC, she and her team focused on familial hypercholestrolaemia ( FH), a genetic condition that affects about one in 75 individuals in South Africa's Afrikaans, Indian and Jewish communities. People with this condition have very high cholesterol levels, and, if not diagnosed and treated, men typically have heart attacks in their forties, while women tend to have heart attacks in their sixties.

However, FH is not the only genetic risk factor for heart disease. Certain genetic variations are known to cause problems with fat metabolism, iron levels, blood clotting and folate/homocysteine metabolism - these have all been shown to increase the risk of heart disease. As is the case with FH, these conditions are all treatable, provided they are detected early.

With this in mind, Dr Kotze's team developed a genetic test that can screen people for the whole range of risk factors at the same time - much more cost-effective than screening for each risk factor separately. This test was unique enough to warrant a patent, which Dr Kotze registered with the help of the MRC in 2002.

But what made her take that leap into the unknown, and start a company based on the patent?

'I must have inherited some of my father's entrepreneurial spirit: he started many businesses, made them successful and then sold them for a profit. The new owners would always ask him to stay on, but he usually preferred to start up another business instead!'

After Maritha graduated, and before she decided to focus only on her research, she designed and made clothes from home, which she sold to people in her community. 'Although I loved the work, it was a bit of a struggle to make sure that people paid me - it's not one of my strengths!'

This is why, when she decided to make her move into the business world, Maritha surrounded herself with an excellent team of people who could complement each other's strengths, and minimise their weaknesses as a group.

Netcare Group assisted with start- up funding, and in 2004 the Cape Biotech Trust awarded her team with R6 million for the commercialisation of the tests Maritha and her group create. Both Netcare and the Cape Biotech Trust now own shares in GeneCare.

'In a way, getting GeneCare off the ground seemed like a natural step when the limitations of the academic environment started to chafe.

'But my team and I would never have been able to start this company without the support and funding I received from the MRC over the years,' she says.