The man who played a crucial role in commercialising the cloning technology behind Dolly is now leading the commercialisation of Edinburgh's £600m publicly-backed BioQuarter project.
Simon Best's aim is to make Scotland one of the top 10 locations for life sciences in the world.
This means transforming the 100-acre site, next to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, into a thriving mix of medical research companies, inward-investing pharmaceutical firms and specialist investors, willing to bet on Scotland's reputation in clinical research.
'Critical mass'
Mr Best highlights the fact that Scotland has the UK's leading diagnostics company, Dundee-based Axis Shield, and one of the leading specialist pharmaceutical companies, ProStrakan in the Borders, both with sales in the hundreds of millions.
He said: "We are not without some successful companies, but it is true we haven't produced as many as we should have, given the strength of our medical research."
This is the fundamental issue for the industry. Taking the ideas and research, coupling them with developments in other companies and finding investors willing to take a 10 to 15-year gamble on the process becoming a money spinner.
The long-term nature of this industry often leads to promising companies running out of cash, and having to sell out before enough commercial value can be realised in Scotland.
Dr John March, chief executive of the Edinburgh-based vaccine development company Big DNA, says access to funding is a major hurdle.
Dr March said: "We need sums of investment of maybe £15m to £20m and the venture capitalists that we are talking to at the moment are strongly suggesting that we secure that sort of investment. The problem is, if we want that level of investment, we cannot get it in Scotland."
Nor does Scotland have the benefit that other similar sized countries such as Switzerland have. Switzerland has two big multinational firms, Nestle and Novartis, which work in life sciences and also work with smaller development companies.
'European hub'
"We really lack the critical mass," Dr March said. "We don't have any major pharmaceutical companies based here and we really don't have any history of producing life sciences companies. That is a real drawback compared to other areas."
The Scottish government highlights life sciences as one of its key industries. It employs more than 30,000 people and before the recession it was growing at four-times the average growth rate of the Scottish economy.
But commercialising more Scottish research will be crucial to make this industry a world beater in future.
That is where Simon Best hopes the Edinburgh BioQuarter will succeed.
"It will help build, over the next 10 to 15 years, some globally significant companies based right here," Mr Best said.
"Part of their product line needs to come from the research here, so that we can provide a return to the taxpayer for the investment through jobs and market products.
"But it is also about establishing a European hub, so that when American, Japanese, even Chinese companies are thinking about where to put their European companies, they will think of putting them in Scotland. "
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