Benjamin Joseph BlencoweFRSFRSC[2][3] is a British and Canadian molecular biologist, currently appointed as Professor and Banbury Chair in Medical Research at the University of Toronto. He also serves as Director of the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Sequencing Centre.[4][1] He teaches in the Department of Molecular Genetics and his lab is part of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.
Blencowe’s research focuses on fundamental questions relating to RNA biology.[1] His research group has made pioneering contributions to the development and application of high-throughput methods for studying RNA processing and RNA-RNA interactions. This research has contributed global-scale insights into the complexity, evolution, regulation and function of alternative splicing, including the discovery of splicing networks that control stem cellpluripotency and neurogenesis. His most recent research led to the discovery of a program of alternative splicing that is commonly disrupted in neurological disorders, work that has opened the door to a new therapeutic strategy for autism.
Pan Q, Shai O, Lee LJ, Frey BJ, Blencowe BJ (2008). "Deep surveying of alternative splicing complexity in the human transcriptome by high-throughput sequencing". Nat. Genet. 40 (12): 1413–5. doi:10.1038/ng.259. PMID18978789. S2CID9228930.
Barbosa-Morais NL, Irimia M, Pan Q, Xiong HY, Gueroussov S, Lee LJ, Slobodeniuc V, Kutter C, Watt S, Colak R, Kim T, Misquitta-Ali CM, Wilson MD, Kim PM, Odom DT, Frey BJ, Blencowe BJ (2012). "The evolutionary landscape of alternative splicing in vertebrate species". Science. 338 (6114): 1587–93. Bibcode:2012Sci...338.1587B. doi:10.1126/science.1230612. PMID23258890. S2CID37453436.
Blencowe received the Premier of Ontario Research Excellence Award in 1999 and the Canadian Society of Molecular Biosciences Senior Investigator Award in 2011.[5] He was a recipient of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada John C. Polanyi Award in 2011 for his contributions to the understanding of the RNA splicing code.[6] Blencowe was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) in 2017,[3] and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2019.[2]