Ben Greenwell

Dr. Jerome Menet Lab

Entrance year: 2015

Hometown: The Woodlands, TX

“I use next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics to study how environmental effects, primarily time of feeding, interact with circadian rhythms in mice to cause genes to activate or deactivate at certain times of the day. Additionally, I examine how these changes in gene expression can affect mice downstream, potentially leading to health benefits based on restricting time of feeding to a certain window of time, or time-of-day dependent chronotherapeutics.”

Research Specialties

Bioinformatics and Genomics

Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Genetics

What is at least one big lesson you have learned in the Genetics graduate program that you think is widely applicable to your future pursuits?

There are times to work hard and times to rest, and both are absolutely needed in grad school and life in general. If you don’t make time for you to take care of yourself, no one else will.

When and how did you realize that you wanted to study Genetics?

I was halfway through my undergraduate Biochemistry degree when I saw a flyer for “Computational Genomics” with Dr. Rodolfo Aramayo. I fell in love with bioinformatics through that course and haven’t looked back.

Fun Facts:

What would be your dream job after graduation from the program?

Eventually, Chief Scientific Officer in a company or organization focusing on genetics research.

Do you have any hidden talents? If so, what are they.

I did a lot of archery growing up and won several local competitions.

Do you have any pets? If so, please tell us about them.

Yes! I have two cats, one is called Mia and is 5 years old, the other is called Athena and is 6 months old. The kitten is a complete handful and an absolute terror. Without them I would not have stayed sane going through the stresses of grad school.