Dr Bryan Fry and Friend

Dr Brian Grieg Fry, originally from the United States, came to Australia to undertake a PhD on the biochemistry of snake venoms. After completing these studies at the University of Queensland’s Drug Design and Development Centre, Fry took up a postdoctoral position at the National University of Singapore. He then returned to Australia and joined the Australian Venom Research Unit (AVRU) where he is now Deputy Director (Research). One of his projects, in collaboration with the Melbourne Aquarium, is research into sea snakes and their venoms. Bryan also spends a great deal of time traveling the world to collect and milk venomous snakes and other animals. This is unusual as most venom researchers never deal with the creatures whose venom they are investigating.

Fry’s work has lead to the discovery that the number of venomous snakes in the world is around 2700, not 250 which was originally universally accepted. More importantly he has discovered that the evolution of venom goes back much further than previously thought. It now appears that snake venom was developed a few hundred million years ago and has undergone little, if any, evolutionary changes since.