Rate My Professor Sally Gras

Professor Sally Gras is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Reader in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering within the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. She earned a double degree in science and engineering from the University of Melbourne and completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, focusing on protein misfolding pathways and amyloid fibrils under the supervision of Chris Dobson and Cait MacPhee. After her doctorate, she joined the University of Melbourne, where she leads the Gras Group at the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute. Gras directs the ARC Dairy Innovation Hub, a collaboration exceeding $16 million with universities, major dairy manufacturers, and Dairy Australia to advance processing technologies and sustainable dairy manufacturing. She also directs the ARC Digital Bioprocess Development Hub, building on prior initiatives in pharmaceutical and food manufacturing.

Her research centers on developing, optimizing, and scaling biopharmaceutical and food production processes, including dairy processing, cheese microstructure, protein aggregation, and bioprocessing innovations. Gras leads the Food and Agribusiness research theme in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, teaches Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Production, and serves as Associate Director of Bio21 and Deputy Director with Products Program Lead for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. She has applied her work industrially for process upgrades, quality assurance, and overcoming technical barriers to new markets. Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2020, her influential publications include 'Metastability of native proteins and the phenomenon of amyloid formation' (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011), 'Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides in biosystems' (Advanced Functional Materials, 2015), 'Recent advances refining galactooligosaccharide production from lactose' (Food Chemistry, 2010), and 'Amyloid Fibril Formation by Bovine Milk κ-Casein and Its Inhibition by the Molecular Chaperones αS- and β-Casein' (Biochemistry, 2005).