Benjamin Bone Email & Phone Number

I am a postdoctoral research associate currently working in the Pahwa lab at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami. My current research focuses on the immunological risk factors of infants born to TB and HIV-1 infected mothers in acquiring TB infection. In my current role I am involved in assay development and optimisation that involve ddPCR and scRNA-seq, with additional immune functionality and phenotypic characterisation through high parameter flow cytometry. Prior to this postdoctoral position, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in Boston MA, under the supervision of Prof. Mathias Lichterfeld from Jan 2022 - Jan 2024. There my research project was investigating HIV-1 reservoir sizes using established ddPCR and high-fidelity PCR/NGS assays (ie: FLIP-seq, MIP-seq), as well as in vitro tissue culture methods. I presented this data at the 2023 Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections as well as for the Martin Delaney PAVE SAB meeting in 2023. Work performed in this lab was published in Nature (2023) as well as reviews in Current Opinions (2024), Med (2023) and Nature Microbiology (2024). I completed my PhD under the supervision of Dr Penny Powell at the University of East Anglia in the UK. There I was investigating non-canonical functions of the ATG16L1 autophagy protein, particularly in the context of influenza virus infection, using in vitro methods. I became experienced in a range of molecular biology and microscopy techniques including: mammalian cell culture, Western blotting, RNA/DNA isolation, qPCR, protein expression via bacteria, viral outgrowth/titration assays, plasmid transfection, CRISPR-cas transformation, purification of plasma membranes by ultracentrifugation and confocal microscopy. I also gained expertise in animal handling, working with mice and holding a personal animal handling licence in the UK. While completing my PhD I presented posters at local conferences in the UK as well as the Microbiology Society Annual conference in 2021. Research from this degree was published in the EMBO Journal (2021) and Viruses (2019). Outside of research I worked an internship for the British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy in science communication, event planning and policy making. I also worked an internship for TeachFirst to develop my mentoring, supervisory and teaching skills.

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  University Of East Anglia

  Virology