Ben is a protein biochemist with research interests spanning structural biology, evolutionary biochemistry, biotechnology, and marine microbiology. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Australian National University, graduating with a PhB (Hons) degree in chemistry in 2012 and a PhD degree in protein biochemistry in 2017. He then worked at the biotechnology company Myrio Therapeutics from 2017 to 2019 as a Research Officer and then Head of Protein Biochemistry, where he contributed to the development of antibodies comprising an innovative class of cancer immunotherapeutics. He was awarded a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Overseas Researchers in 2020 to join the Protein Engineering and Evolution Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan. He joined the University of Western Australia as a Lecturer (Teaching and Research) in the School of Molecular Sciences in January 2025.

- Discovery of new protein function in the marine metagenome

Key paper: Clifton, B.E. et al. The ultra-high affinity transport proteins of ubiquitous marine bacteria. Nature (2024) 634, 721-728.

- Function and engineering of RNA-modifying enzymes

Key paper: Clifton, B.E. et al. Evolutionary repair reveals an unexpected role of the tRNA modification m¹G37 in aminoacylation. Nucleic Acids Research (2021) 49, 12467-12485.

- Molecular mechanisms of functional evolution in proteins

Key paper: Clifton, B.E. et al. Evolution of cyclohexadienyl dehydratase from an ancestral solute-binding protein. Nature Chemical Biology (2018) 14, 542-547.

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