Benjamin R. Tenoever PhD

Dr. tenOever’s exceptional promise as a microbiologist has been acknowledged with significant publications in medical journals, international recognition, and prestigious honors, including the Presidential Early Career in Science and Engineering award, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.

Dr. tenOever completed his postdoctoral formation in Molecular Biology from Harvard University in 2007 after receiving his PhD in Virology from McGill University in 2004. This interdisciplinary training subsequently allowed Dr. tenOever to study one of the most important medical complexities of our time: the molecular biology of virus infection. In August of 2007, Dr. tenOever joined Mount Sinai School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology. His work continues to focus on the intricacies that govern a cell’s response to infection and the subsequent exploitation of that knowledge to generate novel strategies for vaccine and antiviral drug design. His research has been published in more than a dozen high impact journals including Science, Immunity, Nature Biotechnology and Cell.

Dr. tenOever has been invited to present his work all over the world and his most recent research, in which he harnesses small RNA molecules to become antiviral, has drawn a lot of attention and praise from the scientific community. In addition to his research, Dr. tenOever has also taught both molecular biology and virology throughout his scientific training and has become a noted lecturer in that time. During Dr. tenOever’s PhD formation, he taught two graduate courses entitled Molecular and Cell Biology and Viral Pathogenesis. His dedication to teaching was further demonstrated during his time at Harvard University where he taught an undergraduate course called Molecular Biology of the Cell. While there, Dr. tenOever also served as assistant director of the DNA Sequencing and Genotyping Facility. Dr. tenOever presently is a guest lecturer for Advanced Virology both at Mount Sinai and at New York University and teaches a medical microbiology course.