Rate My Professor Benjamin Ross

Dr Benjamin Ross is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Queensland, based at the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE). He graduated with a First-Class Honours Degree in Chemistry from the University of Queensland in 1999, followed by a Doctorate in Medicinal Chemistry from the same institution in 2004. His thesis focused on lipoamino acid- and carbohydrate-based penetration enhancers for oral drug delivery. Post-PhD, he served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences with Dr Ross McGeary from 2004 to 2006, synthesizing biologically useful molecules. In June 2006, Ross was appointed Lecturer in the UQ School of Pharmacy, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2013, and acted as Guest Researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at Lund University, Sweden, in the first half of 2012.

Ross's research centers on medicinal chemistry, applying synthetic chemistry, computer-aided drug design, and virtual screening to develop novel molecules as drugs or research tools for cancer, viral infections, neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, enzyme inhibitors, ion channel modulators, and antivirals. His team employs biochemical, biophysical, cell-based assays, and animal models in collaboration with local and international partners, emphasizing drug-likeness and ADMET properties. Key publications include "Discovery and Structure-Activity Relationships of a Highly Selective Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibitor by Structure-Based Virtual Screening" (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2016, front cover); "GAG mimetic functionalised solid and mesoporous silica nanoparticles as viral entry inhibitors of herpes simplex type 1 and type 2 viruses" (Nanoscale, 2016); "Bifunctional Succinylated ε-Polylysine Coated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for pH-Responsive and Intracellular Drug Delivery Targeting the Colon" (ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2017); "Metal chelation, radical scavenging and inhibition of Aβ42 fibrillation by food constituents in relation to Alzheimer’s disease" (Food Chemistry, 2016); and "Enzyme-Responsive Controlled Release of Covalently Bound Prodrug from Functional Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres" (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012). He has published extensively in moderate-to-high impact journals. Ross serves as Research Higher Degrees Coordinator for the School of Pharmacy, Academic Advisor for Year 2 BPharm(Hons), and coordinates undergraduate courses in drug discovery and dosage form design. He supervises PhD students on projects including Alzheimer’s drug discovery and antiviral nanoparticles.