Emeritus Professor Bob Elliott is a world leader in the treatment of type-1 diabetes. He has pioneered the radical and controversial transplantation of insulin-producing pig cells into humans to treat type-1 diabetes. The hope is that the procedure will mean patients no longer need insulin injections. Professor Elliott’s work is being hailed as a major life-saving breakthrough. He also discovered a new method of testing infants for Cystic Fibrosis which has been adopted internationally and is also the inventor of 11 patents.
Professor Elliott trained as a paediatrician at Adelaide University. He moved to New Zealand in 1970 to become the Foundation Professor, Dept of Paediatrics, University of Auckland, and in 1978 Professor of Child Health. It was there he made the breakthrough on Cystic Fibrosis as well as discovering a novel medical method of treating newborn babies with cyanotic heart disease.
In 1999 he was awarded a CNZM (a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to the community and recently received the coveted Kea ‘World Class Life Sciences Award’. He is an Emeritus Professor of Child Health Research, is on the Board of Cure Kids and the Wings Trust (a NZ trust for the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse) and is also patron of the NZ Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Professor Elliott co-founded Living Cell Technologies Ltd; a company listed on the Australian stock exchange aimed at treating disease by live porcine cell transplantation. He is currently the Medical Director of LCT and continues to work actively fostering international business collaborations in Australia, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Israel, China and Russia.
