Pablo Valenzuela, PhD

Biography

Pablo Valenzuela earned his Ph.D. degree (1970) in Chemistry at Northwestern University, did a postdoctoral training at University of California San Francisco and held a position as Professor in the Biochemistry Department of that institution. In 1981, together with W. Rutter and E. Penhoet, founded Chiron Corporation, which a decade later was the second-largest biotechnology company in the world. As Vice President of R & D, Valenzuela was responsible for the development of biotech products with a market value of nearly 8 billion dollars and inventor in more than 50 patents in Chile and abroad. Valenzuela founded GrupoBios S.A., the first biotech company in Chile and in 1997 he cofounded Fundación Ciencia & Vida. He is professor of Universidad Católica and Universidad Andrés Bello and Chairman of the Board of GrupoBios and Andes Biotechnologies S.A. He is a member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences. In 2002, he was given the Chilean National Award for Applied Sciences. Recently he received the Life Time Achievement Award from the BayBio Association of California.