Bill Kay

Biography

Dr. Kay is a recognized authority on vaccine development and commercialization, with special expertise in the field of aquatic animal vaccinology. He has coauthored a wide variety of patents ranging from protein and peptide expression systems to transgenic plants. He has also pioneered the commercialization of ten vaccines, including bacterial and viral polyvalent subunit vaccines. Dr. Kay has been an early Canadian biotechnology entrepreneur, founding and co-founding several biotechnology enterprises among which are: Microtek International Inc. (now Pfizer Animal Health – (aquaculture biologicals); Micrologix Biotech. Inc. (now Migenix Inc.) (anti-infective pharmaceuticals); Stressgen Biotechnology Corp. (now Akela Pharma Inc.) (biologicals/pharmaceuticals/diagnostics); and SynGene Biotech Inc. (disease resistant crops). He has successfully negotiated joint ventures with Bayer AG, and Diversa Corp. (now Verenium) and acquisitions by Pfizer Animal Health, Dr. Kay is Professor Emeritus and past Head of the University of Victoria's Dept. of Biochemistry and Microbiology. and past President of the Canadian Soc. of Microbiology. His long academic research career has been both broad and prolific encompassing the fields of bioenergetics, molecular pathogenesis, and disease resistant transgenic plants. He has also been a member of and chaired a wide variety of national granting agencies and currently is a member of a number of Scientific Advisory Boards as well as BODs.

Research Interest

aquaculture biologicals); Micrologix Biotech. Inc. (now Migenix Inc.) (anti-infective pharmaceuticals)