Centre Deputy Director Sally Gras

University of Melbourne

Professor Sally Gras is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at The University of Melbourne, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and currently Director of the ARC Digital Bioprocess Development Hub, Dairy Innovation Hub and the Faster, Smarter Pharma & Food Manufacturing Program and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space.

Within the Melbourne School of Engineering at The University of Melbourne, Sally leads the Food and Agribusiness research theme and is Associate Director of the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, where her multi-disciplinary research group is based. 

Sally trained as a Chemical Engineer and Molecular Biologist and received her PhD in protein biophysics from Cambridge University, U.K. 

Sally’s current research activities focus on, among others food and biopharmaceutical production. This includes the structure and function of foods including dairy products, plant protein extraction and assembly. She also works on the extraction of naturally occurring biopharmaceuticals, the production and modification of biopharmaceuticals by cell culture, fermentation, biotransformation. Her interests extend from product and process development to process analytical technologies and process control, she also works on mechanistic and hybrid model development, as well as scaling and translating processes to pilot scale and manufacture. Sally’s expertise in these research topics will be the driving force for P4S’ sustainable processing of biomolecules into food and pharmaceuticals needed for long-term space habitation. 

"I could not go to space without a good meal plan and the right ingredients and equipment to make it all possible"