Biography
William Jakob Dreyer was born in Michigan and raised in Wisconsin and Oregon, with extended periods of visiting in Norway, his father's homeland. He attended Reed College (BA 1952) and the University of Washington (PhD in biochemistry, 1956). Early in his career he became interested in the molecular basis of development and heredity, and he also pioneered instruments that automated chemical analyses. After a period at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he worked with C. Anfinsen, G. Streisinger, and M. Nirenberg, he took a professorial appointment at Caltech in the biology division in 1963. His early work at Caltech centered on investigations of genetic coding for protein structure using immunological techniques. He proposed that genes could be reshuffled to provide additional information for the formation of proteins. With Leroy Hood and later Michael Hunkapillar he worked on the design of an automated protein sequencer and was associated with the founding of the company Applied Biosystems. Dreyer also consulted with many other biotech companies and held upwards of 20 patents on biochemical apparatus and processes. He maintained a life-long interest in the human brain and how genes program behavior. Dreyer was an early member of Caltech's innovative Beckman Institute and an enthusiastic promoter of computer imaging for biological investigations.
From the guide to the William J. Dreyer Papers, 1955-2006, (California Institute of Technology. Caltech Archives)
