Steven Benner, Ph.D.
FounderFoundation for Applied Molecular Evolution
Dr. Steven Benner obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Harvard University. He has been a professor at Harvard University, ETH Zurich, and the University of Florida, where he was the V.T. & Louise Jackson Distinguished Professor of Chemistry.
In 2005, he founded the Foundation For Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME) and The Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology (TWIST). He also founded biotechnology companies, including EraGen Biosciences and Firebird BioMolecular Sciences LLC. He has also contributed foundational technology to a half dozen other biotech companies, including Alantos, Bayer, Siemens, Therascope, and DNA Script for their drug discovery programs, diagnostics, and biotechnology platforms. His work delivered diagnostics products that are widely used in medicine, and ways to produce new classes of therapeutics.
His laboratory was the first to synthesize a gene encoding an enzyme, a foundation for the field of synthetic biology. This work contributed to new methods for the syntheses of DNA and new methods to sequence DNA. He was also the first to make DNA with more than four nucleotide building blocks, expanding the "genetic alphabet" from four nucleotide "letters" to 12.
In biology, Steven was instrumental in establishing the field of paleogenetics, where ancestral genes and proteins from now-extinct organisms are resurrected for laboratory study. He has also been active in the field of astrobiology, where his work has offered experimental paths for the origin of life, an understanding of exotic chemistry in planets and moons such as Venus and Titan, and new strategies to detect alien life that may differ in its fundamental chemistry from life on Earth.
His most recent book is Life, the Universe, and the Scientific Method.
In 2005, he founded the Foundation For Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME) and The Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology (TWIST). He also founded biotechnology companies, including EraGen Biosciences and Firebird BioMolecular Sciences LLC. He has also contributed foundational technology to a half dozen other biotech companies, including Alantos, Bayer, Siemens, Therascope, and DNA Script for their drug discovery programs, diagnostics, and biotechnology platforms. His work delivered diagnostics products that are widely used in medicine, and ways to produce new classes of therapeutics.
His laboratory was the first to synthesize a gene encoding an enzyme, a foundation for the field of synthetic biology. This work contributed to new methods for the syntheses of DNA and new methods to sequence DNA. He was also the first to make DNA with more than four nucleotide building blocks, expanding the "genetic alphabet" from four nucleotide "letters" to 12.
In biology, Steven was instrumental in establishing the field of paleogenetics, where ancestral genes and proteins from now-extinct organisms are resurrected for laboratory study. He has also been active in the field of astrobiology, where his work has offered experimental paths for the origin of life, an understanding of exotic chemistry in planets and moons such as Venus and Titan, and new strategies to detect alien life that may differ in its fundamental chemistry from life on Earth.
His most recent book is Life, the Universe, and the Scientific Method.