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Department of Pharmacology

Benjamin (Ben) W. Spiller, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology
Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology

Background

I have extensive training and experience (>20 years) in structural biology and structural immunology. My research has focused on structural studies at the interface between the immune system and foreign proteins.

Research Description

The Spiller lab is a structural biology lab using protein crystallography as our main structural tool. Current questions being addressed include protein phosphatases, bacterial pathogenesis, and the immune response.

Although the projects being studied in my laboratory are quite diverse, they interest us because they all address novel mechanisms and new paradigms at this interface. Our work ranges from epitope discovery, including bacterial and viral systems as well as newer work to identify IgE epitopes on common food allergens, to development of novel uses for conventional and single chain antibodies. The current focus of research is understanding the IgE response and identifying novel antigens in C. difficile pathogenesis.

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Vanderbilt Faculty Profile

My Bibliography