Ben E. Black

Dr. Ben E. Black received his bachelor’s (Biology) from Carleton College, and his PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics) from University of Virginia. He brings expert knowledge on PARP1 where his work has led to the identification of important structural mechanisms involved in PARP1–DNA trapping and its relationship to inhibitor design with recent work appearing in Science and Nature (Overall, his work has appeared in nearly 100 peer-reviewed journals).

At UPenn, Dr. Black is the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics, co-director of the Penn Center for Genome Integrity, co-director of Penn’s graduate training program in Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, and member of the Penn Epigenetics Institute and Abramson Cancer Center. He is an Associate Editor of Science Advances and the Biochemical Journal, on the editorial board of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Cells, and serves as a reviewer for over 25 scientific journals, including Nature, Science, and PNAS.

He has been widely recognized for his work: a fellowship from the American Cancer Society; a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar Award; the Michael S. Brown New Investigator Award; the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation Initiative Award; the inaugural Perelman School of Medicine Dean’s Innovation Award; Penn’s Discovering the Future Awards; and Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award.