Benjamin M. Brandsen

Graduate Student in Chemistry
(November 2010-January 2016)

B.S. Biochemistry, Calvin College, 2010
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015

Current position: Patent Examiner, US Patent and Trademark Office, Grand Rapids, MI

Brief Biography

Ben Brandsen received his B.S. degree in biochemistry from Calvin College in 2010. In Fall 2010 he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he began working under the supervision of Prof. Scott K. Silverman on studies to understand DNA catalysis. He earned his Ph.D. degree in December 2015, and in January 2016 he moved to the University of Washington for postdoctoral research with Stanley Fields in the Department of Genome Sciences. He began his independent career as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska in Fall 2019.

Research Interests

My research in the Silverman lab sought to understand the extent to which DNA can catalyze cleavage of ester and amide (peptide) bonds. I synthesized various ester-linked and amide-linked substrates and performed in vitro selection experiments to assess the ability of DNA to cleave these linkages. I also identified deoxyribozymes that catalyze hydroxyl glycosylation and amine acylation reactions.