Rate My Professor Jason Gray

Jason Gray serves as an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, Division of Health Sciences, at the University of Otago, a position he has held since 2010. He also functions as the Department Operations Technician within the same department. Gray earned his Postgraduate Diploma (Dip. Grad) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees from the University of Otago. Prior to joining the university, he worked for AgResearch for over a decade, developing competencies in a range of relevant techniques.

As a member of the Basal Ganglia Research Group led by Professor John Reynolds and affiliated with the University of Otago Brain Health Research Centre, Gray contributes to investigations into basal ganglia function and its interactions with brain regions such as the striatum, cortex, and thalamus. The group's research addresses disorders including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia. Gray is actively involved in developing an on-demand drug delivery system for the brain, utilizing focused ultrasound to trigger medication release from liposomes in targeted areas, with applications for Parkinson’s disease. His work on this was featured in the presentation "A Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Drug Delivery System for Parkinson's Disease," recognized at the 2022 Otago Medical School Research Society PhD Student Award event. Additionally, Gray co-authored "An On-Demand Drug Delivery System for Control of Epileptiform Seizures," published in Pharmaceutics in 2022. This collaborative effort with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University demonstrates the use of specialised sound waves or light to release medication from liposomes circulating in the bloodstream, enabling precise intervention to stop seizure activity in drug-resistant epilepsy cases.