Built to move ambitious drug-discovery ideas forward.

From unusual science to new medicines.

The most valuable opportunities in drug discovery often sit between disciplines, established organisations and conventional development pathways.

Transition State Studio exists to identify those opportunities, pressure-test them and help translate them into ventures, programs and practical capabilities. Its work spans new therapeutic modalities, medicinal chemistry, platform technologies, translational strategy and the adoption of emerging tools such as artificial intelligence.

The studio operates as a flexible innovation platform: building companies, supporting research institutions and biotechnology teams, and creating programs that help scientists engage with the future of drug discovery.

Pat Sharp, PhD

Pat Sharp is a medicinal chemist and biotechnology entrepreneur with experience spanning academic research, global pharmaceutical R&D and venture-backed company creation.

He completed a PhD in synthetic chemistry at the Australian National University with Professor Martin Banwell, followed by medicinal chemistry and chemical biology research at WEHI and the University of California, San Francisco. At UCSF, he made pioneering discoveries on the selectivity of Sec61 modulators.

Pat later joined Merck & Co. in South San Francisco, working across cardiometabolic and oncology drug-development programs. He subsequently co-founded Gate Bioscience, the first company dedicated to Molecular Gates—small-molecule modulators of Sec61—and later co-founded Portara Bioscience to develop a new class of medicines known as RiboGlues.

Through Sharp Bio Consulting, he also works with Australian research groups, medical research institutes and commercialisation offices to evaluate therapeutic programs, define critical de-risking experiments and position opportunities for venture formation and global investment.