Tracie Ramsdale is one of the leaders of Australia's biotechnology industry. She not only identified the chemistry of carbohydrates as a neglected opportunity for drug development but also invested her own money in a start-up company, Alchemia, to capitalise on that opportunity. Under her guidance as CEO, Alchemia grew from a few scientists to an organisation that raised over $68M, listed on the ASX and will shortly market its first drug internationally. Alchemia's platform technology, based on carbohydrates as structurally diverse scaffolds for drugs acting at chemically difficult targets, is now the basis for an ongoing pipeline of novel products.