Michaelia Cash and PM Malcolm Turnbull with Eric Reynolds, recipient of the 2017 Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation. Credit: Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science
Laureate Professor Eric Reynolds, CEO of the Oral Health CRC at The University of Melbourne, was announced last week as the winner of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation.
Each year the Australian Government honours Australia’s best scientists, innovators, and science teachers through the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.
Professor Reynolds has been recognised for his outstanding achievement in the translation of scientific discovery into globally successful products that prevent and treat oral disease.
The remineralising technology CPP-ACP developed from a dairy milk protein by Professor Reynolds and his team at the University of Melbourne is now sold globally as Recaldent™ and used by millions of people every day in chewing gum and oral health products.
Products using Recaldent™ have generated sales of over $22 billion to date, and it has been estimated they have saved over $112 billion in dental treatment costs worldwide.
Professor Reynolds continues to lead research at the Oral Health CRC that is testing, improving and developing new Recaldent™ products. His team is also developing a therapeutic vaccine for chronic periodontitis.
You can watch Professor Reynolds’s story of innovation on YouTube.
