Biologist Dreyer passes away

William J. Dreyer, a professor of biology at Caltech since 1963, died Friday, April 23, after a long illness. He was 75.

A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dreyer earned his BA degree at Reed College in 1952 and his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Washington in 1956. After graduating, he worked as a research biochemist at the National Heart Institute and the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Disease before joining Caltech.

Dreyer was perhaps best known for developing an automated sequencer that allowed researchers to quickly determine the order of amino acids in a protein, an instrument that helped to launch the field of biotechnology. He also experimentally demonstrated in the 1960s that genes could be “reshuffled” to provide additional information for the formation of proteins. At first controversial, the theory came into prominence after it was confirmed by other researchers.

At a Society for Biomolecular Screening conference last year, Caltech alum Leroy Hood credited Dreyer for mentoring his early career, teaching him to think conceptually, and introducing him to “the exhilaration of rapidly paced molecular immunology.” Dreyer always emphasized two principles, he added: “Always practice biology at the leading edge” and “If you really want to change biology, develop a new technology for pushing back the frontiers of biological knowledge.”

Dreyer authored a number of journal articles and held many patents, including one for an immunological reagent and radioimmunoassay and two for poly-acrylate beads that he developed with two colleagues.

An avid pilot since 1960, Dreyer often flew to Baja California and around the western United States and British Columbia. He once remarked that his taste for flying his Cessna P210 at 15,000 feet—high for a small plane but low for commercial aircraft—was “an allegory for my tastes in scientific research. I like to work where research isn’t too competitive and crowded—to move beyond the current mob scene, even if the place where I end up is lonely.”

He is survived by his wife and colleague, Janet Dreyer; three daughters; five grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and a sister.
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