Peter Gray (bioengineer)

Professor Peter Gray (born in Sydney in 1946) is a bioengineer who has played a key role in the development of modern industrial biotechnology in Australia. He was Professor and Head of Biotechnology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, from 1988 – 2003, and was the inaugural Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia from 2003 – 2015.

Gray completed his university studies at The University of Sydney, graduating in 1966 with a degree in chemical engineering and biosciences with honours. He completed his PhD at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1970, studying the dynamics of protein synthesis in yeast growing in steady state continuous cultures.

Gray undertook postdoctoral research as a Science Research Fellow at University College London (UCL) in the group of Professors Malcolm Lilly and Peter Dunnill. The group was receiving major funding to investigate the application of immobilised enzymes processes for industrial bioprocessing. While at UCL, Gray carried out research on a number of unit operations required for the large scale production of bioactive proteins production by bacteria, unit operations which subsequently became widely used for the production of proteins made using recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology. He then moved to the United States to work for Eli Lilly and Co, Indianapolis, Indiana, as a Senior Scientist. At Lilly’s he was responsible for developing production scale antibiotic fermentations. Lilly’s was one of the first companies to link the new knowledge of microbial genetics with bioengineering to improve the strains and bioprocesses used for antibiotic production.

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