AS firms grapple with the fall-out from the UK Government's austerity programme we hear from a scientist who took an entrepreneurial turn after previous cuts led him to find a new way of making a living.

Name: Colin Wilde

Age: 59

What is your business called?

AvantiCell Science Ltd

Where is it based? Ayr

What does it produce, what services does it offer?

AvantiCell is a life science company selling services and products built upon laboratory cell culture technology. Our products are human cells isolated from tissues donated after surgery. Our services deliver testing which uses the cells to report the health benefit and safety of materials ranging from new drugs to traditional medicines and food ingredients. Our technology offers an ethically-acceptable alternative to animal testing.

To whom does it sell?

Our customer base includes pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and food producers. We also sell to universities.

What is its turnover?

We are edging ever closer to becoming members of The Million Pound Club.

How many employees?

Fifteen at present. With recruitment planned it will be close to 20 by the end of the year.

When was it formed? June 2006.

Why did you take the plunge?

My co-founder Jo (Joanna) Oliver (CEO) and I saw an opportunity to rescue technology about to be lost following the closure of the Hannah Research Institute in Ayr. We had expertise in isolating living cells from tissues, and saw an opportunity to apply this to the preclinical testing of new drugs and materials with potential health benefit.

We thought advances in cell technology ought to produce ethically-acceptable ways of reducing animal testing. So we set out to build an ethically-attractive testing platform, using human tissue donated as surgical excess, with the permission of patients undergoing surgery.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I worked as a biochemist at the Hannah, one of Scotland's agricultural research institutes, and over 20 years contributed to its studies on how milk is made. My science took me into the field of cell biology, and away from agricultural science towards biomedicine. I ended up speaking about breastfeeding on World Health Organisation training courses and acted as vice-chair of a European network of breast cancer researchers. As government support for the Hannah fell away, I became involved in technology transfer from the Institute to industry.

When the axe fell in 2006, Jo was my business mentor, and had a reputation for building and advising biotechnology start-ups by combining her business and finance head with doctoral level scientific knowledge. Together we decided that our ability to isolate and culture living cells had commercial potential and was worth salvaging. The company's first service and products reflected our past careers, and were tools to test new breast cancer treatments.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

I put my redundancy payment and life savings into the company. Jo did pretty much the same. We were supported by two directors of the closing institute's technology transfer company, whose faith in AvantiCell was greatly appreciated at the time – and still is.

We had commercial income from the outset, after persuading a major agri-biotechnology company that we could make their life easier with our cell-based testing. This, together with essential support from Scottish Enterprise, allowed us to grow.

What was your biggest break?

I'm not sure there was one moment when everything fell into place, and I think this reflects the unusual model of "organic growth" we have adopted. We do have venture capital investment from Barwell plc, and matching support from the Scottish Investment Bank, but the amounts are a modest six-figure sum, relatively small for a company of our size in its seventh year of trading, which invests heavily in R&D.

The first commission from a big pharmaceutical company was a bit of a landmark, as was the first sale in Japan, and the launch of AseaCyte, our Malaysian Joint Venture in Kuala Lumpur, which was supported by the British High Commission and attended by the then chief scientific adviser to the UK government, Sir John Beddington. AseaCyte has adapted AvantiCell's cell culture systems to test scientifically a range of Malaysian natural products, such as rainforest plant extracts, for possible clinical use in mainstream medicine.

What was your worst moment?

All new-starts, and especially all small biotechnology companies, have cash-flow problems from time to time. Asking your family to keep faith and accept financial sacrifices to keep the company afloat is not nice, and there have been times when Jo and I have foregone salary for significant periods to help AvantiCell through to better times.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

As chief scientific officer, I must make the science and technology work, and win new business based on that technology. After many years, there is still a real satisfaction in seeing that your experiment has worked. Having moved into commercial science relatively late, I had not realised how good it feels when someone is willing to pay money for technology you have invented.

What do you least enjoy?

There can be frustration that stakeholders see only the financial figures on the accounts and forecasts, and don't appreciate the depth of scientific detail and technical tenacity that sits behind the work which generates those figures. But Jo will tell me that these are the views of a former academic scientist and have no place in the world of commercial technology.

What are your ambitions?

I'd like to see a return on our collective investment and, as I'm no spring chicken, I'd like it to happen soon. The other half of the equation is to do enough good science to be recognised as a competent, reliable provider of leading-edge cell-based analysis. I hope success with our Malaysian JV company AseaCyte is a forerunner of other international partnerships.

What are your top priorities?

To do good science – if we don't, we shall fail.

To do so whilst offering ethically-attractive alternatives to the testing of drugs and other therapeutics in animals.

I'd like to think, through growing business with partners and customers in the rainforests of Borneo and elsewhere, we can help bring traditional medicines and natural products into mainstream medicine, by adding scientific validation that is often missing.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?

I think the UK Government should stop agonising over Europe and give it whole-hearted support. Many people do not appreciate the scale on which our science and technology is supported by the EU and the added value that comes from European interactions. The UK and Scottish governments should make banks take some risks and lend to small businesses. We are the bedrock of the UK economy, and yet far too many will have shared AvantiCell's experience, where the banking relationship has moved from friendly and supportive to being almost as sterile as our cell cultures need to be.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

The need for tenacity and perseverance and, sometimes, in the face of evidence to the contrary, to keep your faith in human nature. It's a rollercoaster – exciting and scary at the same time.

How do you relax?

I read – but only books with happy endings. We travel – mostly to Italy, where the dolce vita can still be found amongst its impressive bureaucracy. I look forward to Sunday dinner with the family – a conversation and a laugh around the table is the best thing of all.