Ben M. Dunn, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology since 1998, received his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara and did his postdoctoral work at the NIH. He has been at the University of Florida since 1974, rising through the ranks to his current position.
Dr. Dunn began his research with studies of acetal hydrolysis as models for lysozyme catalysis. He worked on staphylococcal nuclease and ribonuclease at NIH from 1971-1974. After joining the faculty in the College of Medicine at Florida, he initiated his studies of the structure and function of proteolytic enzymes. Beginning with porcine pepsin, then moving to cathepsin D and fungal enzymes of the pepsin family, he established new assays for quantifying the activity of the enzymes and studied the binding of a variety of natural and synthetic inhibitors.
When HIV-1 was discovered in the 1980’s, Dr. Dunn’s laboratory was well positioned to embark on studies of the protease as an essential drug target. His lab has contributed to many studies of the binding of inhibitors to HIV-1 protease and many variants that arise as a consequence of the development of drug resistance. His work is supported by an NIH MERIT award from the NIAID. He also turned his attention to enzymes of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and continues to publish on both systems.
In the past Dr. Dunn has served as Councilor, Secretary, and President of the International Proteolysis Society and received the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award in 2007 at the biennial meeting. He has also been a councilor for the American Peptide Society and now represents that organization of the FASEB Board.
He is currently Editor-in-Chief for two journals, Current Protein and Peptide Science and Protein and Peptide Letters. He is co-Editor of the book Current Protocols in Protein Science.
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