Together with a small team of scientists, we started Cape Bio Pharms as a spin-off from the University of Cape Town. Our mission: commercialise the plant-based expression technology and manufacture a wide range of recombinant proteins for use in research and diagnostics. Investment by UCT, together with grant funding from the DTI, turned our plans into reality and in 2018 we got down to business. We received further funding support from the University Technology Fund and in 2020 we received a substantial grant from The Foundation for Innovative and New Diagnostics (FIND) to scale up production of SARS-CoV-2 reagents. With the support of additional private investors, we now have a rapidly growing product pipeline, a staff of 24 amazing people and a 10-year roadmap to become a major player in the global plant-based expression market. On the technology side, plants are exceptionally good at producing proteins, we just trick them into making 'foreign' proteins. There is now a long scientifically proven track record globally to support the potential of plant-made biologics which includes antibodies, antigens, human and animal vaccines, novel therapeutic proteins. industrial enzymes and protein polymers.Conventional expression systems such as that based on cell cultures, yeast, bacteria or in eggs are exceptionally expensive to set up. Our plant-based platform costs a fraction of this and can produce proteins in weeks, is easy to scale, and is flexible and agile to meet health demands in times of a crises. Plants can produce complex molecular structures with no risk of the transfer of animal pathogens and demonstrate comparable, and in many cases better, performance. Our mission is to use the technology of transient expression to contribute to biosecurity in Africa by developing regional manufacturing capability for reagent production and diagnostic test kit manufacture. In so doing we hope to build up critical skills, create home-grown IP and find that holy grail, or perfect protein that can only be made in plants. It's out there and we will find it.