Dr Petra Oyston OBE

Dr Petra Oyston (OBE) has a background in life sciences, holding a PhD in microbiology from the University of Manchester, and was a Fellow at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) for over 30 years. She developed two strands to her career: firstly, she had an active research programme focused on intracellular bacterial biothreat agents with a view to developing vaccines and antimicrobials, and was Dstl’s highest publishing author for over a decade, with Visiting Professor positions at two UK universities. More recently, she led a programme to apply engineering biology tools to challenging problems in Defence. In this role, she was responsible for developing and implementing strategies for the MoD and UK more widely. Petra was closely involved with the Research Councils in developing the National Engineering Biology Programme, was the MoD representative on the Engineering Biology Leadership Council and supported the formation of the Engineering Biology Cross-Whitehall Working Group.

Alongside her role at Dstl, Petra has extensive Committee experience and directly supported UK HMG in ensuring regulatory, legal and policy frameworks were adequate to mitigate risks from life sciences research and significantly shaping policy development for engineering biology. Petra was a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and American Academy of Microbiology, and in 2025, she received an Order of the British Empire for her services to Science and Defence.

Petra has previously held a Non-Executive Director role for an early-stage spin-out and has a good understanding of the knowledge economy, with particular interest in what it takes to turn knowledge and information into economic value.