Benjamin Ellington
Technical Advisor
Ben Ellington joined Ropes & Gray as a Technical Advisor in the intellectual property group. Prior to joining the firm, Ben was a postdoctoral researcher at a joint National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Maryland facility, where his research focused on protein engineering and next-generation proteomics.
Ben obtained his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where his work in mechanistic enzymology helped to elucidate how a cyanobacterial enzyme converted fatty acid derivatives into drop-in biofuels. Additionally, his undergraduate research and subsequent internship at Abbott Pharmaceuticals afforded Ben valuable experience in synthetic organic chemistry.
Publications
- Ellington, BR et al. “An unusual iron-dependent oxidative deformylation reaction providing insight into hydrocarbon biosynthesis in nature.” ACS Catal. (2016)
- Co-author, “Mechanistic insights from reaction of α-oxiranyl-aldehydes with cyanobacterial aldehyde deformylating oxygenase.” ACS Chem. Biol. (2014)
- Co-author, “Probing the mechanism of cyanobacterial aldehyde decarbonylase using a cyclopropyl aldehyde.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2013)
- Co-author, “Heat shock protein 70 kDa chaperone/DnaJ cochaperone complex employs an unusual dynamic interface.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (2011)
Education
- PhD (Biological Chemistry), University of Michigan, 2016
- BS (Biochemistry and Cell Biology), Rice University, 2009