Ben Blencowe studied microbiology and molecular biology at Imperial College London, where he received a BSc (hons) in 1988. He undertook graduate research in the group of Professor Angus Lamond FRS at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory as an external student of the University of London, earning his PhD in 1991. Ben then joined the laboratory of Professor Phillip Sharp (Nobel Laureate) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Human Frontier Science Program Long Term Fellow in 1992. He was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in 1988 and promoted to full Professor in 2006. Ben is currently appointed as the Banbury Chair in Medical Research and Canada Research Chair in RNA Biology and Genomics, at the Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto. He is also Director of the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Sequencing Centre. In March 2024, Ben was appointed as part-time Professor of RNA Biology and Genomics at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College London.
Ben is internationally recognised for his contributions to the field RNA Biology. By pioneering the development and application of high-throughput RNA profiling technologies, he and his colleagues discovered and characterised entire landscapes of alternative splicing regulation in diverse cell types, species and disease states. These and other studies provided fundamental insight into the complexity, mechanisms and evolution of alternative splicing. His research has further revealed pivotal roles for alternative splicing in the control of stem cell pluripotency and neurogenesis, and has demonstrated how its misregulation represents a convergent mechanism underlying autism spectrum disorder. Ben has received numerous awards and honours, including the Premier of Ontario Research Excellence Award (1999), Canadian Society of Molecular Biosciences Senior Investigator Award (2011), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada John C. Polanyi Award (2011), and the Canadian RiboClub Life Achievement Award (2019). Ben was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2017, and Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2019.
