Bentley, J. Peter

J(ohn) Peter Bentley, a professor of biochemistry in the School of Medicine, received a Bsc in 1952 from the Royal College of Technology (England), an MS (1961), and a PhD (1963) from the University of Oregon Medical School. Faculty Emeritus, OHSU, in the Department of Academic Affairs. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Czechoslovakia (1990). His primary focus in research since coming to the United States in 1957 concerned wound healing. He was part of the research team of Dr. J. Englebert Dunphy at Harvard researching this subject. In Oregon he partnered since 1984 with Dr. Jack Fellman on creating a new artificial skin for burn patients, made from calf collagen, and funded in part by a Navy contract hoping for a portable wound healing kit. This project led to several patents and by 1992 the project resulted in an artificial skin marketed under the name Integra. He mentored (1981 on) students in internships at the medical school with the Minority High School Apprenticeship Program. He also served as Assistant Dean for Planning (1988). His biochemical expertise frequently saw him sought out for comment by area newspapers on alcohol-related stories; such as Exxon Valdez Capt. Hazelwood’s coming to Oregon to replicate the alleged alcohol intoxication he was charged with after the environmental disaster in Alaskan waters (1989), and supporting warning labels on wine (1990). He was also an amateur thespian, appearing in local theater productions (1969).