Brian J. Bellhouse (1 October 1936[1] – 12 June 2017) was a British academic, engineer, and entrepreneur, the inventor of PowderJect, a needle-free injection system for delivering medications and vaccines.
[2] In 1992, Bellhouse was at work on a "powdered injector to deliver genetic material into plant cells" when he wondered if he could use the same method on people.
[4] Bellhouse developed PowderJect, a needle-free and pain-free injection system which shoots fine powder into the skin at high speed, and his son-in-law Paul Drayson brought along the financing needed to turn it into a commercial reality.
[2] With the profits he gained from the sale of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, Bellhouse became a major donor to Oxford University, including a "substantial gift" towards the building of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and the endowment of the Oxford-Bellhouse Graduate Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering at Magdalen College.
[8] On 12 June 2017, Bellhouse, while out for a walk in a field that he owned, was trampled to death as he tried to save his dog from a stampeding herd of cows.