Benjamin Clark——Associate Professor
Nationality:
New Zealand

Phone:


Email:
bclark@tju.edu.cn

Office:
Room 505, Building 24, Tianjin University

School:
School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology

ResearcherID:
M-5570-2015

Group weblink








Education Experience
2001-2006 Ph. D. Chemistry Brisbane, Australia
1997-2000 B.Sc. Chemistry and Biochemistry Victoria University of Wellington, NZ

Professional Experience
2006-2007 Postdoctoral Researcher UC San Diego, USA
2007-2010 Postdoctoral Researcher University College Dublin, Ireland
2011-2015 Postdoctoral Researcher University of Hawai’i at Hilo, USA

Research Area
Research in the Clark group focuses on microbial natural products as applied to drug discovery, metabolomics, and chemical ecology. Microbes have long been a source of potent antimicrobial and anticancer agents, and we have a particular interest in marine and extremophilic microbes as a source of new drug leads. We also investigate chemical ecology: what role the metabolites serve for the microbe itself, and how are they involved in the interaction of microbes with other organisms. The group uses metabolic profiling and multivariate statistical techniques in all of these research avenues in order to classify samples, identify active components, and elucidate the interactions of molecules and organisms. While microbes are the primary focus of the group we also have experience working with plants and marine organisms if there are particularly interesting ecological questions to be addressed in these areas.





Honors and Awards
Embark Postdoctoral Fellowship - Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology(2007-2009)
President’s Award: Travel Grant – University College Dublin(2008)

Patents

Highlighted Publications
Clark, Benjamin R.; Mizobe, Mindy; Kaluhiwa, Jerry L. M.; Leong, Jo-Ann; Borris, Robert P. Chemical and genetic differences between Hawaiian lineages of the alga Asparagopsis taxiformis. J. Appl. Phycol. 2018, 30, 2549–2559
Clark, Benjamin R.; Bliss, Barbara J.; Suzuki, Jon Y.; Borris, Robert P. Chemotaxonomy of Hawaiian Anthurium cultivars based on multivariate analysis of phenolic metabolites. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2014, 62, 11323-11334.
Clark, Benjamin R.; O’Connor, Stephen; Fox, Deirdre; Leroy, Jacques; Murphy, Cormac D. Production of anticancer polyenes through precursor-directed biosynthesis. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2011, 9, 6306-6311.
Fukuda, Takashi; Miller, Eric D.; Clark, Benjamin R.; Alnauman, Ali; Murphy, Cormac D.; Jensen, Paul R.; Fenical, William. Structures and biosynthesis of the pyridinopyrones, new polyenepyrones from a marine-derived Streptomyces strain. J. Nat. Prod. 2011, 74, 1773–1778.
Clark, Benjamin R.; Murphy, Cormac D. Biosynthesis of pyrrolylpolyenes in Auxarthron umbrinum. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2009, 7, 111-116.
Clark, Benjamin R.; Engene, Niclas; Teasdale, Margaret E.; Rowley, David C.; Matainaho, Teatulohi; Valeriote, Frederick A.; Gerwick, William H. Natural products chemistry and taxonomy of the marine cyanobacterium Blennothrix cantharidosmum. J. Nat. Prod. 2008, 71, 1530-1537.

ResearcherID Publications
Year Title Author(s) Source Volume
2018 Chemical and genetic differences between Hawaiian lineages of the alga Asparagopsis taxiformis Clark, Benjamin R.; Mizobe, Mindy; Kaluhiwa, Jerry L. M.; et al. Journal of Applied Phycology 30
2015 Unusual Flavonoid Glycosides from the Hawaiian Tree Metrosideros polymorpha Clark, Benjamin R.; Pramanick, Swapan; Arancon, Norman; et al. Natural Product Communications 10
2014 Chemotaxonomy of Hawaiian Anthurium Cultivars Based on Multivariate Analysis of Phenolic Metabolites Clark, Benjamin R.; Bliss, Barbara J.; Suzuki, Jon Y.; et al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 62
2014 Enzymatic halogenation in stereoselective synthesis Murphy, Cormac D.; Clark, Benjamin R. StereoselectiveSynthesis of Drugs and Natural Products 2
2012 Flavone C-glycosides from Anthurium andraeanum Clark, Benjamin R.; Suzuki, Jon Y.; Bliss, Barbara J.; et al. Natural Product Communications 7
2012 Production of the novel lipopeptide antibiotic trifluorosurfactin via precursor-directed biosynthesis O’Connor, Neil K.; Rai, Dilip K.; Clark, Benjamin R.; et al. Journal of Fluorine Chemistry 143
2011 Bacterial production of hydroxylated and amidated metabolites of flurbiprofen Bright, Tara V.; Clark, Benjamin R.; O’Brien, Eimear; et al. Journal of Molecular Catalysis B-Enzymatic 72
2011 Biodegradation of polyfluorinated biphenyl in bacteria Hughes, David; Clark, Benjamin R.; Murphy, Cormac D. Biodegradation 22
2011 Production of anticancer polyenes through precursor-directed biosynthesis Clark, Benjamin R.; O’Connor, Stephen; Fox, Deirdre; et al. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 9
2011 Significant Natural Product Biosynthetic Potential of Actinorhizal Symbionts of the Genus Frankia, as Revealed by Comparative Genomic and Proteomic Analyses Udwary, Daniel W.; Gontang, Erin A.; Jones, Adam C.; et al. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 77