Dr. David Benson
Biography
Professor Benson came to 茄子视频 from a faculty position at Wayne State University with an excitement for training undergraduate research students at a Christian college. Coming from Mennonite and Non-Denominational backgrounds, he sees that a Reformed Christian perspective provides an excellent foundation for doing science while being Christian. To do chemistry and biochemistry, he has pulled together a variety of research experiences from undergraduate synthetic chemistry (through his work at Bowling Green State University), graduate bioinorganic enzymology (through his work at University of Illinois), postdoctoral metalloprotein design (through his work at Duke University Medical Center), and nutrient biosensors (through his work at Wayne State University) to integrate most of the traditional chemistry and biochemistry disciplines into unique teaching and research experiences. In addition to first year chemistry courses, he has taught upper-division inorganic and analytical courses from a biological context. His research projects integrate traditional biochemical methods (such as microbiology, protein expression & purification, gel electrophoresis) with spectroscopic and chromatographic analysis. He also serves on the committee that maintains the sizeable fleet of instrumentation in the Science Division at 茄子视频 to provide students with hands-on access to high-end research instrumentation. Outside of Calvin, you can find him spending time with his family, playing board games, doing home projects, or running.
Education
- B.A., Goshen College, 1990
- Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Inorganic Chemistry, 1997
Professional Experience
- Wayne and Susan Cady Professorship in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, 2025-present
- Professor of Chemistry, 茄子视频, 2014-present
- Visiting Scientist, Van Andel Research Institute, 2015-2019
- Associate Professor of Chemistry, 茄子视频 (College), 2008-2014
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Wayne State University, 2001-2008
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University, 1997-2001
Research
- Selective Cobalt Recycling: Cobalt consumption has increased exponentially in the last decade due to lithium cobalt oxide battery production for electric vehicles and personal electronics. Cobalt is almost exclusively extracted from cobalt-rich copper ore in remote areas of the Congo and Indonesia. Cobalt production has a high-demand but limited access, geopolitical instabilities, and environmental stewardship have increased pressure to recycle cobalt from commonly used lithium-manganese-cobalt-nickel (L-MNC) cathodes in batteries. While methods exist for lithium and manganese separation from L-MNC cathodes, separation of cobalt from cobalt-nickel waste is chemically demanding. While cobalt and nickel are periodic-table neighbors, most molecules that bind metal ions (ligands) will bind nickel ten-times tighter than cobalt. We are developing polymer resins that should bind cobalt ten-times tighter than nickel through the synthesis of structured polymers, measuring metal ion binding affinities, and computational modeling of metal ion affinities. The structured polymers will form a cavity for metal ion binding in a specific coordination geometry that will prefer cobalt ions over nickel ions to provide our desired selectivity. Resins based on these cobalt selective ligands will be applied to recycling waste streams from Li-MNC cathodes.
- Cysteine-Tyrosine Model Peptides: Antioxidants are low-molecular weight molecules that sacrificially lose electrons (oxidized) rather than important biological molecules (proteins, DNA, lipids, etc.) This is why we need a mixture of water- and fat-soluble vitamins, some of which are antioxidants, in our diet. There are a few chemical modifications of the twenty amino acids that make up proteins (post-translational modifications) that also function as antioxidants that are tethered to the protein backbone, rather than freely flowing within the cell. Most of these antioxidant post-translational modifications are generated by iron or copper ions bound to proteins through binding and activation of atmospheric oxygen. The best studied antioxidant post-translational modification is where a covalent C-S bond is formed between a tyrosine (phenol) and cysteine (thiol) sidechain, called Cys-Tyr. While there are Cys-Tyr containing proteins in bacteria (sulfite reductase), fungi (galactose oxidase), and mammals (cysteine dioxygenase), we have synthesized Cys-Tyr containing, cyclic peptides. These peptides form well defined structures based on NMR studies. While understanding the fundamental aspects of Cys-Tyr structure in proteins, we are examining the acid-base and redox character of these peptides.
Awards
- Wayne and Susan Cady Professorship in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, 2025-present
- VIPEr Fellow- Cohort 2 for Pedagogy in Inorganic Chemistry - 2020
- National Science Foundation - RUI: Protein Tyrosine Oxidations to Maintain Cellular Redox State (Award 1709787) - 2017-2020
- National Science Foundation - MRI: Acquisition of a Circular Dichroism Spectrometer for Research and Training of Undergraduate Students (Award 1623941) - 2016-2019
- 茄子视频- Sabbatical - 2015
- National Science Foundation- RUI: Role and Formation of Tyrosine-Cysteine Protein Cofactors (Award 1058391) - 2011-2015
- National Science Foundation- ARI-R2 : Integrated Science Research Experimental Laboratory (Award 0963433) - 2010-2013
- American Chemical Society- Project SEED Summer Award - 2012
- National Science Foundation- S-STEM: Expanding Computation for Interdisciplinary Science (Award 1154472)- 2012-2015
- American Chemical Society- Project SEED Summer Award - 2011
- National Science Foundation- MRI-R2: Acquisition of Biophysical Instruments for Interdisciplinary Faculty and Student Research (Award 0959681) - 2010-2013
- American Chemical Society- Project SEED Summer Award - 2010
- National Science Foundation- MRI: MALDI Acquisition for Collaborative Species and Biomolecule Identification (Award 0923167) - 2009-2012
- National Science Foundation- MRI: Acquisition of a 500 MHz NMR Spectrometer to Enhance Faculty and Student Research (Award 0922973) - 2009-2012
- Office of Naval Research- Semiconductor Nanoparticle-based Biosensors for Stochastic Analyte Detection - 2006-2009
- National Science Foundation- NER: Protein-Based Nanobiosensors for Environmental Monitoring (Award 0508134) - 2005-2006
- National Science Foundation- Conference on Metalloprotein and Protein Design (Award 0837310) - 2005-2006
- Invited to "Emerging Investigators Issue" of The Analyst - 2006
- Research Corporation - Research Innovation Award - 2002
- National Institutes of Health (Duke University) - National Research Service Award - 1998-2000
- University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign- Lubrizol Fellowship - 1992
