Bioenergy and Biofuels
Biography
Ben is pursuing his PhD in Engergy Science and Engineering with a focus on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. With a Bachelors of Science in Biochemsitry and Evolution and Ecology from The Ohio State University and a research background in organic chemistry, Ben is applying his skills to further cell-free synthetic biology and its applications in natural product discovery and synthesis. Working with Mitch Doktycz in the Biological and Nanoscale Systems Group in the Biosciences Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, his work combines modern genetic engineering and molecular biology methods with state-of-the-art analytic tools indlucing HPLC, LC-MS and MALDI (Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization) TOF MS. These techniques are applied to the massive biological diversity in the microbial isolate collection created in the Plant Microbes Interfaces Science Focus Area at Oak Ridge National Lab, to find novel natural products and determine their role in microbial community structure and function.
Ben is also Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SimPath LLC with fellow Bredesen Center student Rob Moseley. SimPath is synthetic biology startup focus on disrupting the DNA synthesis and assembly market by implementing a novel DNA assembly technology invented at Oak Ridge National Lab.
Publications
Google Scholar Profile: Ben Mohr
