When Tim Doran’s youngest daughter, Cara, was born with allergies to eggs, nuts and dairy products, the family had to carefully monitor her daily meals to ensure she avoided those ingredients. That wasn't always easy.
"At birthday parties, Cara could never have the cake and I always felt for her because she'd be the kid who had the special cake that Mum had made for her to take to the party," recalls Tim.
Egg allergy affects up to 10% of children. For some it means hives. For others it means anaphylaxis, and a childhood spent on the outside of ordinary things. The party. The bakery. The school canteen.
"So many foods contain milk and eggs and as a family you try and manage and find ways to avoid all those ingredients, but the inclusivity part is hard. And then I realised that with my skillset and background in biotechnology, I could try and help with this problem."
That skillset is considerable. Thirty years applying post-genomic technologies to global livestock industries. More than 80 peer-reviewed papers, including one in Nature on sex determination in birds. Inventor on 13 patents.
After graduating from Haileybury in 1984, Tim studied science and genetics at Monash University, then spent three years at St George's Hospital medical school in London researching tuberculosis. In November 1996, he joined CSIRO where his focus was infectious disease, helping protect Australia from exotic threats such as avian influenza, foot and mouth disease and Hendra virus.
"It was work where you felt you were doing something that was having an impact for the country," he says.
Tim is now Chief Scientific Officer of OmnisOva, an Australian company working to make eggs accessible to more people. It is a long road, and he is careful about what he claims.
"The evidence has to come first," he says.
"But there's a huge sense of reward in applying the expertise I've developed over a long period of time to do something that will help people with allergies, so they can have a more inclusive experience with food."
The company's genesis started with a conversation at a Haileybury reunion.
"I chatted to a school friend about what I was trying to do and he said 'I can help,'" says Tim. "He has helped create the business by bringing in investors. The Haileybury network was the secret sauce that enabled me to do what I'm doing now."
Haileybury has long held that the relationships formed at school are among the most enduring things a student takes with them. Tim's story is that idea in practice. Two old school friends, a conversation at a reunion, and a company propelled on the strength of a decade old friendship.
The network exists because people stay connected. Occasionally, that connection turns into something neither of them could have built alone.
