Benjamin Van Espen Ph.D. (Ben)

Ben Van Espen is a biomedical scientist focusing on patent prosecution in the life sciences industry. With an extensive background in cancer biology, inflammatory, and auto-immune diseases, Ben's experience has been honed over almost a decade in academic research and has resulted in multiple highly cited peer-reviewed publications.

While earning his doctorate at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Ben led investigations on ubiquitin ligases in metastatic prostate cancer, utilizing molecular biology tools and in vivo tumor models. He also worked as a staff research associate at the University of California San Diego that included overseeing projects on protein tyrosine phosphatases in auto-immune and inflammatory disease models, as well as contributing to a metabolomics research team, unveiling metabolic profiles in patients with diabetic kidney disease, and in the NASA's Twins Study on the effects of long duration space flight.